Forever Finding Stormy Seas
by MyEccentricSelf
Summary: A look at Finnick Odair and my OC, Calla's lives.
1. Chapter 1

**Callalilly – Age 15:**

"I really don't see the point of this." I spoke, looking up from the table I was currently occupying.

Haymitch Abernathy, my father, looked over at me as he downed the last of his alcohol, "To help the tributes from 12."

"But why do I need to go?"

"Because you're charismatic." He spoke sarcastically, pouring himself another drink.

I rolled my eyes, "Whatever."

"Come on, maybe you'll make a friend or something."

I snorted, shaking my head at him. Sometimes his sarcasm was just a little too much when he was drunk, but I stood up anyway, pulling my hair from the messy ponytail it had stayed in for most of the day and walked into the large bedroom that the Capitol apartments provided. The Hunger Games were a big thing in the Capitol, complete with large viewing parties where the District mentors would try to obtain sponsors for their tributes. It was ridiculous really, the overbearing styles and personalities cramped into a large room, betting on who would die first, who would kill the most, and finally who would win. It was sickening, and I hated watching it. So did my Dad though…hence the drinking before it had even officially started.

"Hurry up Calla."

I quickly changed, coming out of the bedroom in a long sleeved green shirt and black pants, "Let's get this over with."

"Don't sound so excited." My Dad gave me a small smile and walked out of the door to the apartment.

* * *

"Chaff." My Dad walked over to his old friend, the man with one hand and him embracing, leaving me standing in the crowd of Capitol people who were talking excitedly about the Games as if teenagers weren't about to be brutally murdered.

I bit my lip, looking around and trying to find something to do rather than just standing there.

"You look a little lost." I turned to the sound of a male voice, coming face-to-face with a visually striking man about a year or two older than me. He had short bronze hair, sea green eyes, and tan skin…add the height difference between the two of us and he was definitely gorgeous.

"I'm not lost."

He laughed and put something in his mouth, chewing on it for a moment before speaking again, "Coulda fooled me."

"I'm not."

"Yeah." He popped another thing in his mouth, "Oh, want a sugar cube?"

I looked at him, trying to figure out what drug he was on as he held his hand out, showing the sugar cubes in his hand, "No thanks."

"Alright," he smiled, "I'm Finnick by the way."

That would explain it….Finnick Odair was a bit of a playboy, even if this was his first year of really being in the Capitol. There were more women around him than needed, and adding that to the fact that he had used his 'charm' to kill at least two of the female tributes in his Games, it made it that much worse.

"People call me Calla."

"That doesn't mean it's your name."

I bit my lip, "Callalilly."

He laughed again, causing me to blush slightly, "Wow."

"Like I said, people call me Calla." I narrowed my eyes at him, "For good reason."

"Callalilly isn't that bad."

"You haven't had to live with it for fifteen years."

He laughed again and shrugged, "Maybe not."

"Calla," raising an eyebrow, I looked at my Dad as he put a hand on my shoulder. "How are you doing Finnick?"

"Haymitch." Finnick nodded and then turned as one of the overly flamboyant Capitol woman called his name, "Nice to meet you Calla."

"Yeah…you too."

He walked away, leaving my Dad and me alone, "What was that?"

"Apparently I looked lost."

My Dad laughed as he steered me through the crowd, "Well that's really nothing new."

"Thanks Dad."

* * *

"Damn it." My Dad took another shot of whiskey, or whatever it was he was drinking, trying to calm himself down after watching both of our tributes die because of the female tribute from District 1.

I let him be, knowing this was hard on him. Twelve hadn't won the Games since he had, and after so many years of being forced to watch kids die in the arena…it really amazed me that he was only a drunk.

"Dad, I'm going to step out for a while." I walked to the door, stepping out as a bottle was thrown into a wall.

I sighed and left, walking through the hallway to the end where a large window sat in the wall, showing the city of the Capitol where bright lights hid the stars and the moon that I was suddenly longing to see. People were partying still in the building across the street, their music pounding to drown out every other sound; they were all still excited about the beginning of the Games and their earlier betting sprees. How many of those people that were partying outside currently had profited from the deaths of District 12's tributes?

"How angry is your Dad?"

I turned, once again looking up into the sea-green eyes that belonged to Finnick, "Pretty pissed."

"He seemed like it earlier."

Nodding, I sat down, looking out the window and listening to the sounds of the party, "He's sort of over the whole thing."

"I would be too if I'd been mentoring as long as he had."

I looked over at him, watching him sit down beside me and pull his knees to his chest, "What're you doing?"

"Sitting here," he gave a small chuckle, "what does it look like?"

"Maybe I came out here to sit alone."

Finnick shot me a smile much different from the ones he had delivered earlier, "Maybe I did too."


	2. Chapter 2

**Finnick – Age 18**

I really did not want to be going back to the Capitol; it just seemed so redundant now because of the fact that I spent more time with Snow's clients than I did with the tributes that I was supposed to be mentoring for the Games.

"Have you seen a recap of the Reapings?" Mags walked into the train compartment where I was sitting, conversing with District 4's tributes. The boy, Seth Waters, was sitting stiffly in a chair, looking like he wanted to be in the arena already…seeing how quickly he had volunteered though backed up my assumption. The girl on the other hand looked positively horrified. I didn't know who she was, but I did know that she was only about fourteen and she definitely would not be in the careers. I felt bad for her; no fourteen year old should have to go through what she was about to…

I shook my head, watching as Mags turned the television on, showing Caesar Flickerman, who was sporting bright orange hair, smiling brightly at the camera as he started the recap. Districts 1 and 2 were easy to guess, both had had two volunteers just like they'd had every other year and District 3's tributes consisted of a mousy fifteen year old girl and an unimpressive seventeen year old boy. District 4's time slot came and went…but after that, I stopped paying attention. I was using my time to focus on how to help our tributes…especially the girl. But, as I was coming up with a solution, District 12 came into view and I looked at the screen.

Haymitch had been telling me, the last time we saw each other, that he was worried about this being his daughter's year. He knew she couldn't stay out of the arena forever…Snow had allowed him to raise the little girl solely for the fact to take her away from him in the most brutal way possible, letting the man get attached to the girl had also been exactly just what the president wanted. So, when they showed their escort, some gawdy woman with a matching pink wig and outfit named Effie Trinket, I started paying more attention, mentally crossing my fingers that it wasn't her.

Effie started with the old "Ladies First" thing and moved to the first glass bowl, slipping her hand into it and grabbing a slip of paper. It took her a moment to open it and as she worked on that, the camera panned across the stage, showing Haymitch and the mayor before panning across the silent crowd of District 12 and then…

"Callalilly Abernathy." Effie's obnoxious Capitol accent snorted out her name, treating it as if the name belonged more to a fictional character rather than the daughter of District 12's only mentor…and the girl that had listened to me talk about nightmares and every other little thing that popped into my head for the last two years.

The shot moved to show Calla, her long brown hair left down and cascading over the shoulders of the blue dress she was wearing. The close-up of her face gave everyone a clear view of her gray eyes that clearly expressed worry and fear until she took a deep breath and changed her expression to one of indifference. She walked to the stage, her head held high like this was some sort of honor, as they showed Haymitch, whose face was a mixture of rage and fear, as Effie moved to the next bowl.

"Now, for the gentlemen." She pulled another slip out, smiling a gigantic, gruesome, smile that was so obvious fake it made me want to vomit, "Mitchell Pine."

The boy walked up to the stage, shoulder's squared, gray eyes hard and brown hair messy. He and Calla shook hands and then, suddenly, Caesar Flickerman had returned.

"I certainly don't envy Haymitch Abernathy this year. District 12 hasn't had a victor since the second Quarter Quell and there seems to be some menacing looking kids from the other Districts this year." With that, the screen went black…and I felt my chest clinch into a tight knot.

Calla had to win…I wasn't going to lose the only confidante that I had…the only girl that didn't look at me like I was some pretty faced player. Calla was mine and I wasn't going to lose her to President Snow's Games.

* * *

"This is utterly disgusting."

I smiled slightly as I heard Calla's voice echo through the crowd of horses, tributes, and the occasional mentor or stylist. However, when I found her in the crowd, my smile faltered a little before falling completely off my face. She was painted black…and wearing absolutely nothing else besides that. I could only imagine what Haymitch was thinking, but he wasn't around and I could only hope that he wasn't somewhere drinking…she needed someone to lean on through this whole ordeal that was sober.

She looked beside her as Mitchell walked to her side, equally as naked and painted black. Mitchell towered over her in a threatening way, and he was being very obvious about _not _staring at her face.

"What's the point of this?" his voice was deep and gruff, and as he looked at her, Calla crossed her arms in an attempt to cover her breasts.

She looked up at him though, trying to ignore what he was looking at, "This introduces us to sponsors…which we need."

Mitchell shook his head and looked away, leaving Calla to look around the room herself. She eventually caught my eye and gave a small, embarrassed smile as I quirked an eyebrow. I really wanted to find out who had created her non-existing outfit and force them to allow her to wear clothes…something to cover her up a little before she was forced to expose herself to all of Panem and the Capitol. I was beginning to wonder if Snow had planned the outfit, or lack thereof, himself; maybe he might just gain another person to do for him what he forced me to do and showing them everything that Calla had to offer was a good way to get the bids going.

"Places," someone shouted, taking me away from my thoughts for a moment as I turned back to Seth and the girl.

But, even as I paid attention to my tributes, making sure that they stood and acted in the exact way that Mags wanted them, I saw from the corner of my eye as Mitchell and Calla boarded their own chariot, both trying not to touch each other as they stood there awkwardly. When I was finally happy with my tributes, I backed away, already heading to the underground training center, as I tried to think of some sort of plan to get Calla alone so I could speak to her.

* * *

With the tributes and mentors filling the room that everyone had arrived in, it took me a few minutes to find Calla. Haymitch was standing with her, and I was glad to see that she now had a blanket covering up everything that had already been exposed. Her father was, surprisingly, sober and I was glad for that, she didn't need a drunk mentor.

"I really don't think your outfit showed enough." I said, approaching the short, brown haired, girl.

Calla sent me an embarrassed glare, she had rubbed most of the black paint off of her face and it helped me see the faint blush that had risen to her cheeks, "Watch it Odair."

"I'm just saying they could have shown a lot more skin. In fact, they really should have actually…I'm sure all of Panem would have eaten that up." I smiled slightly as her blush grew even more pronounced, "How're you holding up Callie?"

She shrugged and gripped the blanket around her even tighter, "I suppose I've been better."

I nodded, watching as mentors began escorting their tributes to their respective floors and then noticed that Mags had already taken the tributes to ours. The room thinned out quickly and Haymitch led Mitchell up to their floor, nodding to me as I lightly grabbed Calla's arm, ignoring the paint that got stuck to my hand, as we were left alone.

"You're going to win this, do you hear me?" I paused, "I don't care what you have to do, but you're going to win this."

Calla gave me her signature nervous giggle that she always seemed to provide when she was stressed, "There's absolutely no way Finn. You saw that guy from 9, he's going to chew me up and spit me right back out."

"No he won't. You can do this." I could see in her eyes that Calla didn't believe me, could see that she was already readying herself for what she thought was soon to be her brutal end. So…I did the only thing I could to convince her.

I leaned down, pressing my lips onto hers, expertly kissing her. This was different from the unwanted kissed from the clients Snow always seemed to line up for me, this was electrifying, much better than the drunken kisses of late nights that I tried so hard to forget. This was something that I always wanted to remember, especially if things did go the way that Calla so strongly believed.

"Win for me." I pulled away from her, my green eyes finding her stormy ones before I pushed her toward an elevator, "You understand me? Win for me."

Calla bit her lip and nodded in understanding before she entered the elevator and pressed twelve, leaving me alone in the room that so many lost tributes had once occupied.


	3. Chapter 3

**Callalilly – Age 17**

_"The victor of the 69__th__ Hunger Games is Callalilly Abernathy." _Seneca Crane's voice sounded in the arena, echoing through the mountainous landscape.

I felt sick, having just killed the girl from 1…and still feeling the left over sensation of the poisonous spiders that had inhabited the arena. I could remember tributes from previous Games having cheered when they were announced the winners of the Games…me, however, I just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry.

* * *

"Callie." Finnick walked toward me, looking at the blue dress that I had been put in, the prep team had painted some kind of weird, blue, flower on my face, and I felt completely different than how I really was. This whole dress up and act happy bit that I had to perform was not helping me.

"Hey Finn." I gave him a small smile and felt him pull me into his chest where he proceeded to place his face in my hair and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" He pulled from me, searching my eyes and seeing that I wasn't, "That was a stupid question."

I gave him a small, nervous giggle, "Yeah it was."

"Everything is going to be okay."

"I know."

He kissed me again, a quick, soft kiss, and then pulled away, "I'll be in the audience alright, right next to your Dad."

"Okay."

* * *

"Can you tell me what compelled you to try and win the Games?"

I blinked and found Finnick in the audience, sitting right where he'd promised me, and when I went to voice the truth I thought about everything that he'd told me over the years…if I told them the truth it would just get him in trouble. So, I gave him, and my Dad, a small smile and then turned back to Caesar, "Well…the real reason was because of my Dad. I'm the only family he had left."

Caesar Flickerman nodded, "I remember when your father was up here himself after winning the second Quarter Quell, it seems fitting that you should follow in his footsteps."

I laughed and followed his eyes as he began showing the clips from the Games, starting from the beginning where I ran away from the Cornucopia, picking up a bag and hightailing it away from the bloodbath that had been going on behind me. I hadn't even seen Mitchell, but he had run right to the Cornucopia, going exactly against what my Dad had warned us against, the boy from 4 had slit Mitchell's throat before he was able to pick anything up. I had to stop myself from cringing.

"Can you tell me a little about the other tribute from 12?"

_The other tribute from 12?_ Those words echoed in my head, it was like he didn't think he had met a brutal end…like it hadn't really happened.

There was something seriously wrong with the Capitol.

"Mitchell was my age…he worked in the mines out of town, and I hadn't really known him all that well. But, in school, he was pretty popular…the girls loved him."

The crowd laughed, but even as disgust ran through me, I continued smiling and I could hear my Dad's words from earlier echoing in my head, _just smile and look pretty for the camera. They don't give a shit about anything else._

The clips continued to the third day where I was sitting high in a tree, thankful for the environment past the fence in 12 and for Haymitch teaching me how to climb trees. I had just killed the eighteen year old from 9 and all I wanted to do was wake up and realize that this whole thing was just some kind of sick nightmare. I looked exhausted in the video and way too eager to just 'accidentally' fall out of the tree when a capsule had fallen into my lap, the parachute covered it for a moment before I pushed it away and opened the capsule, in the clip it showed me simply staring at the contents of it for a moment before smiling and pulling out a slip of paper. Finnick had sent me a piece of District 4 bread. The slip of paper had said the last words he'd said to me before going into the arena.

**Win for me.**

And I did.

* * *

_It was strange to think that growing up in District 12 and hanging out around the Seam that I was afraid of spiders, but waking up to find a giant, poisonous, looking tarantula thing in my lap was not fun. I shrieked as I saw it and batted the creature away from me with my hand; but as I released myself from the branch that I had inhabited that night, I saw even more making their way toward me. _

_ I cursed, grabbing my things and jumping from the branch and dropping into a roll so I wouldn't hurt myself to much. As I stood up, now on solid ground, I ran in the opposite direction of the spiders, toward the clearing where the Cornucopia sat. The Gamemakers were pushing the tributes together like they did every year when the Games got stale. _

_ As I ran though, I couldn't seem to distance myself enough from the spiders behind me, and when the first one bit me, I used the knife on my belt to cut it in half. They were quicker than normal spiders, not that I was really surprised; they had a knack of putting any and every kind of mutt in the Games, I just couldn't understand why they chose to use spiders now. They descended on me, faster than I could get them off of me, and as I fell to their knees because of their venom, I heard someone screaming. _

"Calla. Callie, wake up. It's just a bad dream, you're okay." My Dad was yelling, something he usually only did when he was drunk. It took me a moment to process what he was saying, but when I did, I stopped screaming; having just noticed that the shrill sound was coming from me.

I also noticed in that moment that I was crying, but when I did notice it, I latched onto my Dad and cried into his chest. I hadn't had a nightmare since I was twelve and that was induced by my first Reaping.

"Everything's okay Callie, nothing's happening…you're safe." He stroked my hair, letting me calm down. This wasn't usually the way my Dad worked, normally he would have said something sarcastic by now, but I was thankful that he hadn't. What I really wanted though was to see Finnick, but my Dad and I were back in 12 and I wouldn't see him until the Victory Tour, so for now, my Dad, who wasn't that good at the whole consoling thing, would have to do.


	4. Chapter 4

**Finnick – Age 20**

I hated President Snow, hated what he made me do with people from the Capitol, and now hated him more than ever as Calla was led into the party by some man with blood red tattoos on his face. Calla looked beautiful in a strapless, floor length, red dress; but I could see the shadows under her eyes beneath the makeup that had been caked onto her face, and no one could have hidden that tired look in her eyes.

Haymitch had told me that she had been having nightmares, I'd had plenty of them myself, but she didn't look like she was handling them that well. I wanted to go over to her and hug her, pull her into a protective embrace and never let her go, but I knew that would just bring Snow's leash around her that much tighter. He'd already blown up on the mines that had held her friend and his father, all because she had refused to work with Snow's clients anymore last year. If I went over there now, there was no telling what Snow would do to Haymitch…or even to her.

I continued watching, seeing the way that she was hanging on the guy's arm. The whole thing was an act of course, I knew from experience, but I could also tell because whenever the guy's attention was elsewhere, her smile faltered and she downed another glass of champagne.

She looked around as the guy spoke to someone else in a brightly colored suit, her eyes catching mine in the crowd. I nodded to her, gaining an embarrassed smile before she turned her attention back to her date.

Fuck President Snow.

* * *

"Finnick, last night was," the woman spoke beside me, a large smile on her face, "amazing."

I didn't like how she said my name, the way she sort of snorted it out…it was nothing like the smooth way Calla said my name. Nothing like the soft, sometimes even angry way of speaking that she had.

I looked over at her, giving the woman a wide smile, "It was."

I had long since stopped trying to remember their names, it only brought more anger and pain when I did know them and this one was no different. It was sad really, the woman could have been quite attractive, almost beautiful even, but with all of the Capitol's surgeries that she'd gone through, she didn't look human anymore. Especially since her skin was died a sickly green.

It was nothing like the normal, tan, skin that belonged to the nineteen year old girl who had been on my mind since I had saw her last night. The woman beside me had eyes that were the color yellow, like an unnatural sun…while Calla had her normal, stormy gray eyes that constantly reminded me of being on a boat at sea during a thunderstorm. Calla didn't cling like this woman had either.

"I have to leave, but, feel free to make yourself at home okay." The woman smiled brightly again and left the bed, leaving me to sigh and stare up at the ceiling. I wouldn't be here for very long after she left. I was meeting Calla for lunch before she went back to District 12, I wanted to make sure that she was alright, with the nightmares from the Games, the death of her friend, and having to deal with Snow's secret business deals; I was sure that she needed a break from it all.

"Bye Finnick." The woman waved cheerily and left me alone in her apartment, leaving me to continue staring at the ceiling for a while longer as I let last night's memories engulf me like an undertow in the waves of the sea. This was something I always did, let the memories overtake me before storing them somewhere in a vault in the back of my mind and didn't think about them again until some sick and twisted part of my head unlocked them while I was asleep.

* * *

"Haymitch says that you've been having nightmares." I looked over at her as we walked down the street, passing by flamboyantly dressed Capitol people as we spoke.

Calla gave a small grimace and shrugged, "I'll admit that I haven't been sleeping soundly…but if I remember correctly, you have nightmares too."

"Yeah." We fell silent, "When does your train leave?"

She wove around a Capitol man and then appeared back at my side, "Tonight at five."

"You sound excited."

Calla gave me her signature nervous giggle, "Well, it's exciting here, something always going on. But I am excited about getting _away_ from the people here. I'm also excited to get away from Dad for a little while…he's been smothering lately, I can't even go to a different room without him casually walking in with me; I absolutely hate it.

"He's just worried about you."

She sighed, "I hate making people worried."

"You're never _not_ going to have people worried about you."

"Why's that?" Her gray eyes found mine, our eyes staring into each other's for a moment; thunder storms melting into the sea before she gave me a small smile and blushed slightly.

I returned the smile, "Because, people care about you."

"And who would those people be?"

We stopped walking and I took her hands in mine, our eyes still staring into each other's, "Me."

"You?" Her voice wasn't sarcastic, and I knew that she hadn't meant it as a question, but the slightly nervous giggle that had come at the same time.

"Yeah, me." Still holding one of her hands in mine, "And your Dad, and all of that guy's family."

"His name was Sterling Hawthorne." Calla grimaced and looked at the ground, "And, I'm pretty sure that his whole family wishes that I'd died in the Games."

I shook my head, "No they don't."

* * *

"I'll see you in two months."

Calla nodded and looked back at the bullet train behind her; her gray eyes expressing the torn feelings that were going through her head. She didn't really want to go back, and she'd expressed that during lunch…she didn't want to go back and see the faces of the families that had people die in that mine mishap. But she didn't want to stay here either; she didn't want to continue pretending that she was perfectly fine for the people of the Capitol.

I could see that the latter was winning out though, Calla wouldn't stay here. You can only pretend that you're okay for so long.

"Two months." Calla gave me a small smile and went to board the train, but I pulled her against me, pressing my lips to hers like I had the day they had shown the tributes off to the Capitol two years ago.

Once again, the feeling was electrifying, but we ended it quickly…Calla needed to go home.

"Be safe." I pressed my face into her hair, whispering the words before I let her go and she boarded the train.

Calla smiled, "I'll see you in two months Finn."

The doors closed the entrance, leaving me alone at the station as the train speed away with Calla.


	5. Chapter 5

**Callalilly – Age 23**

"One District will be having a third victor join them."

I sat with my Dad, Peeta, and Katniss as we watched President Snow speak on TV, the large white flower that only slightly covered up the scent up blood, as always, present on the lapel of his jacket. He was smiling; his surgically enlarged lips making it seem like more of a grimace. I hated the man, despised the way he treated people, and hated his attitude.

He turned to another bowl that held twelve slips of paper, "And the District will be…" he paused, opening the folded piece of paper, "Twelve."

Haymitch sucked in a breath and stood up, leaving the room as he looked for something alcoholic. I sighed and looked at the two seventeen year olds that were still in the room, staring at the television in horror.

"I guess the three of us are going back into the arena then," I stood up as I spoke, glaring at the television in anger before I left the room.

* * *

The people of District 12 gathered in the square, all feeling out of place where no peacekeepers were recording their children to be placed in the Games. I spotted Gale with his siblings and sent him a small, embarrassed, smile before looking down. I still felt guilty about the mine shaft his brother and father had 'accidentally' blown up in. Katniss' father had been in it with them…and I didn't even want to think of all the other families from the Seam that had lost their only source of income because I had refused to be one of Snow's whores.

I pushed the thought out of my head and looked down at my hands, finding interesting patterns in them as everyone quieted down and Effie Trinket got the third Quarter Quell's reaping on a roll. Her, usually chipper, smile was plastered on and was absolutely fake, she wasn't very happy with the turn of events and I was absolutely positive that most of the people in the Capitol felt the same way. Three of my clients had told me that there were complaints filed about the Quarter Quell this year…and Snow wasn't doing anything about it. Effie took a while to reach in the first bowl and grab a slip of paper where two female names occupied. It didn't matter who was chosen first though, I'd already made it clear to Katniss and Peeta. My Dad was not going back to that arena.

"Katniss Everdeen." Effie smiled and waited for Katniss to walk up to the stage before she moved to the second bowl and pulled out another slip, "Haymitch Abernathy."

My Dad went to stand up, "I volunteer."

Peeta was quicker and passed my Dad as he went up to the stage, and waited for Effie to move to the third bowl. I shot the boy a thankful look and he returned it with a nod before he turned his attention back to Katniss and Effie. That left two people in our lineup left, and only one of them absolutely sure that they were going in. My Dad looked shaken and I couldn't decide if it was because of Peeta cutting off his booze supply or if he was just worrying about his new family…this was why I wasn't going to let him back in the arena, he could barely take care of mundane things by himself, how was I supposed to expect him to protect himself with people trying to kill him.

"And the third tribute," Effie dumped the two names into one bowl and pulled a slip of paper out, "Callalilly Abernathy."

* * *

"I want you to make as many friends as possible." My Dad spoke, sending his message to Katniss and Peeta more than to me.

He and I had stayed up all night taking about a plan…a plan to get the rebellion truly going and to get the rest of the tributes out of the arena. I knew he hadn't told me everything, but that was probably a good thing.

The recaps were long over and as my Dad addressed the other two; I spent my time thinking about Finnick. If anyone shouldn't be going back into the arena, it was him, but I knew that this was some sick and twisted joke for Snow, just like District 12 having three former victors thrown back was. He had looked exhausted during his reaping, and incredibly scared when Annie Cresta was chosen. My Dad and I were the only two people on the train that knew the real reason behind his fear though. Annie was Finnick's first love, but after the 68th Hunger Games, when she had been a tribute and had watched as her District 4 counterpart had been beheaded, the girl definitely went insane. I didn't blame her, if the roles had been reversed and I had had to watch Mitchell get beheaded in the Games, I probably would have gone insane too. However, Annie still thought that she was in the Games sometimes and bbbbbdidn't seem to remember Finnick, in fact, the first couple of times that he had gone to see the girl, she had tried to kill him.

But it also didn't help that Mags, the only person that had been like family to him after Snow had killed his family when Finnick had said no to the president's proposal about whoring around to the highest bidder, had volunteered for the young crazy woman. Either way, Finnick was at risk of losing someone very dear to him.

I bit my lip and took a large sip of coffee before turning my attention back to Peeta and Katniss as they argued with my Dad.

"Trust me you guys," I cut through the argument, "With these victors, you're going to want more allies. Most of them have been mentoring for years; they're going to know things that the two of you put together don't."

"But we have you." Peeta spoke up, looking at me with a bit of childish defiance on his face.

I shook my head, "Not if you don't want allies. I already know who I'm teaming up with."

"And who would that be?" Katniss asked suspiciously.

I only shrugged, "You'll see when we get there."

With that, I stood up and left the train car, going to the bedroom in another car so I could think better without the two seventeen year olds that didn't know what they were doing arguing with my Dad about technique the whole time.

* * *

"The two of you look perfect." Cinna, the new stylist for 12 smiled as he looked at Katniss and me.

We were wearing black unitards that would light up with synthetic fire when we pressed a button on our sleeve. I seriously wished that he had been the stylist for my Games, this was way better than being painted black with no other clothes on.

"When you're on the chariot, I want both of you to look ahead and act as if you're better than all of this, understand."

I nodded and waited behind as Katniss left for the holding pen, her make up having already been finished.

"It's a shame that you weren't around for the 69th Games." I spoke as Cinna began dabbing my face with makeup.

He laughed, Yes, my outfit design would have been much better than just being painted black."

* * *

I walked to our chariot where Finnick and Katniss were standing. The District 4 man was dressed very minimally, with only a fishing net covering very little of his lower body. I felt a blush creep into my cheeks at the sight and then watched as Finnick leaned in, totally screwing with Katniss' head. I stayed back for a moment until he pulled away, a large, triumphant, smile on his face.

"Finnick, where _did_ you get that outfit? I would absolutely love to borrow it sometime, considering how ravishing you look in it."

The sea-green eyed man turned toward my voice, a large smile on his face, "Hey Callie. You know maybe we should swap outfits sometime, but I'm pretty sure that yours would look much better on my bedroom floor."

"Really?" I gave him a nervous giggle, "I guess it's too bad that we won't have that chance because I was thinking the exact same thing about your outfit."

His face fell slightly, but he caught himself by holding out his hand, "Want a sugar cube Callie? You know, people like us really should grab anything sweet when we get the chance."

"Why not?" I shrugged, plucking a cube from his hand and placing it in my mouth. The sugar melted on my tongue and I smiled at him, remembering him performing this when I was fifteen, "Thanks Finn."

Katniss, who had silently stood there through our chat, looked confused and I laughed at the expression on her face, Finnick joined in quickly, our laughs ringing through the holding pen. We stopped as Peeta entered, moving away from the chariot and the people around us, trying to find a slightly secluded area where we could talk privately.

"How've you been Callie?" Finnick was suddenly serious, causing me to giggle again, unable to stop the nervous habit.

He smiled slightly at the sound, but it didn't reach his eyes, "Been better."

"You know the plan?"

I nodded, "The important things, yeah."

"Okay."

"Places."

Finnick and I looked at each other, and like my first Games, he pulled me into him as I went to walk away, pressing his soft lips to mine. The room, that had been loud before, felt completely silent and as Finnick pulled away and allowed me to walk to 12's chariot, I saw many people staring, tributes and Capitol workers alike.

"Well, I think we know who your ally is." Katniss looked at me suspiciously for a moment as I boarded the chariot.

I only shrugged, "Finnick is one of them."


	6. Chapter 6

**Finnick – Age 24**

Katniss was escorted out of the room, Haymitch cradling his face as the cuts started to bleed slightly. She was being childish really; Haymitch had had to leave his own daughter just to make sure that they had gotten the Mockingjay. He didn't need any added stress to that…he already felt guilty enough.

"She's gonna be okay Haymitch…" I spoke, trying to convince myself of the same thing, "Peeta will be too."

He nodded and stood up, his hand still covering the cuts on his face as he left the room to get bandaged up. I knew exactly what he was thinking though, he wanted to drown everything down with alcohol and at the moment…I wanted the exact same thing.

* * *

I'd know during that first day in the arena that Katniss truly did love Peeta; it was obvious when I'd had to restart his heart and Calla had tried to comfort her. But, with Peeta actually gone, she'd had to be kept sedated for a while, and now she was finally being released from the hospital that District 13 had. I was staying, still trying to accept the fact that Calla wasn't here. After all that Snow had put her through, she was even deeper in his clutches than she'd been originally.

I hadn't seen Haymitch since we'd arrived in 13 and I was still wondering if he'd found any alcohol or not. I wanted to numb myself from the memories and the fears of what was happening to her right now that continued to haunt me.

If we'd had just saved Peeta instead, we could have saved Calla too…and that made me angry at Katniss.

"Any word?" I looked at Haymitch, the man looked sick and his gray eyes were bloodshot. I was still trying to decide whether it was from crying, lack of sleep, or just the lack of alcohol.

He shook his head slowly, "Not yet. We already know everything that they've been reporting back to us."

"Then they're not looking hard enough." I was getting angry with the people of 13, it had weeks since we had gotten here and they had yet to make a rescue party to get our people from there. They had made no effort to save Calla. "When are they going to do something about it?"

I tied a piece of rope in a knot, and, without looking at it, unraveled it before tying another one. Calla had told me to do this one year, had said that I probably just needed to do something with my hands. I had to admit that it worked sometimes…now; however, it was just making me worry about Calla even more.

Haymitch shrugged unhappily, "Coin doesn't see the point to it."

"Screw Coin."

* * *

"Katniss," I ran down the hall, trying to catch the Mockingjay before she left completely. They had told me that I wasn't mentally capable to go with her, "Katniss."

I stopped in front of the elevator and watched Katniss' face as she took in my appearance. I'd definitely let myself go, if Calla had been here, she would have gotten annoyed and told me to get my freaking act together…but she wasn't here. Wearing only a hospital gown and slippers, it had to be a shock to the seventeen year old girl before me, less than a month ago she had see me wearing a fishnet over my crotch and rocking it.

"They wouldn't let me go with you. I told them I was fine, but they won't even let me ride in the hovercraft." Calla would have smacked me, not only had I been useless lately, now I was acting like a spoiled five year old.

Katniss smacked herself in the forehead, "Oh I forgot. It's this stupid concussion. I was supposed to tell you to report to Beetee in Special Weaponry. He's designed a new trident for you."

"Really? What's it do?" My ears perked up at the word 'trident'…I hadn't seen one in weeks and I missed the familiar feel of one in my hands.

She shrugged, reminding me of Calla, "I don't know. But if it's anything like my bow and arrows, you're going to love it." She paused, "You'll need to train with it though."

"Right of course." I was excited, if I could train with it then maybe they would let me go on a rescue mission, "I guess I better go down there."

As I turned to go see Beetee, Katniss stopped me, "Finnick? Maybe some pants?"

I looked down, once again seeing myself wearing the hospital gown and slippers; I smiled, thinking of Calla's outfit before the Quarter Quell and the words I had said to her.

_"I'm sure yours would look better on my bedroom floor."_

Ripping off the hospital gown, I see Calla's face before it shifts back to Katniss, "Why? Do you find this," I strike the most provocative pose I can think of, "distracting?"

The Girl on Fire laughs, "I'm only human, Odair."

And with that the elevator closed, leaving me to find some clothes to wear before going to see Beetee.


	7. Chapter 7

**Callalilly – Age 23**

It was white…too white in the asylum-like cells they were holding us in. Peeta, Johanna, Annie, and I had all been placed in the same cell, but some of us were worse off than others. They'd hijacked Peeta and had convinced him that Katniss was some sort of mutt; he'd been trying to get his shackles off for days, his wrists were bloody and it was running down his arms and into his blonde hair. Johanna looked horrible too; they'd shaved our heads because the smell of burnt hair wasn't favored here in the Capitol. Screaming bloody murder, however, was perfectly fine though…they seemed to enjoy that.

Annie looked fine, however, they hadn't really done anything to her. But she was already crazy; 3there wasn't much they could do to her after that.

She screamed a lot though, especially when Peeta, Johanna, or I were alternating between it. Annie also had these really crazy eyes sometimes, like she was in another place. Finnick had told me that she still relived her Games, but unlike the two of us, she didn't just relive them at night, she relived them at every waking moment too. I would have killed myself if that had been my fate.

I was getting angry with my Dad, Finnick, Katniss, and the rest of District 13. They knew we were here, knew something was going on, but no one seemed to think we were worth any time. They were lucky that Peeta was the only one hijacked…so far at least, looking across from me, I saw the blonde teenager. His eyes held anger, and it was only toward one person…but I also saw traces of the old Peeta in there too. Through the anger, there was also fear and worry, and it wasn't for himself, Peeta hadn't thought of himself since I'd known him.

"Peeta." He was thrashing again, the scabs on his wrists opening up, "Stop.

Our eyes met and he calmed for a moment before starting with more energy than before. I sighed in response and looked away, unable to physically watch the boy's futile attempts of escape.

* * *

Electricity combined with water was horrifying. I knew that they weren't trying to get information anymore; they just wanted to hurt us. Breaking to the surface of the small, but, deep pool, I looked for Johanna, hoping that she was okay. I didn't think that I had enough strength to get her.

I counted to five, taking a deep breath, about to go underwater to find her when it started again. I let out a loud, blood curdling scream, taken by surprise by the sudden pain. Thrashing at the water, I felt myself go under, unable to think calmly to get to the surface and get a deep breath. The water burned my throat as I unconsciously closed my eyes and let out another, albeit soundless, scream.

* * *

"Don't die on me, damn it, Calla."

Someone was pounding my chest and yelling at me, but I couldn't make myself open my eyes, couldn't breathe. My lungs still felt like they were being filled with water, but I knew that wasn't the case…someone was yelling. Or maybe they'd finally drove me insane like Annie.

"Breath Calla…now." The voice, now sounding a bit familiar, was begging now, bringing me toward the sound, making focus on the noise, trying to do as it said.

They were still pounding on my chest, still trying to get me to get the water out of my lungs and eventually, I coughed, water coming out of my mouth and falling into my face. I opened my eyes, seeing my Dad leaning down, a frantic look in his gray eyes.

"Calla?"

"Dad?" my voice was hoarse, and I was still coughing out water as I tried to catch my breath. I could hear Peeta yelling in the distance, but it wasn't the screaming that I had become accustomed too, this was something about Katniss…and it was angry, not the loving tone he had used at the beginning of this whole venture.

My father gave a sigh of relief and watched as someone picked me up. I looked over to see the face of Gale, his eyes looking over at Peeta before finding my face and giving me a small smile, "You look horrible Calla."

* * *

"Calla!" Finnick ran into the hospital room, his sea-green eyes lit up as I slowly sat up, cringing as I moved.

He hugged me lightly, before pulling back and placing his lips on mine, pressing roughly to my lips. I laughed slightly into the kiss, nervous all of a sudden as he placed his hand on the back of my shaved head, and he pulled back, his eyes searching my face as I blushed.

"How's Johanna?"

"Unconscious."

I nodded and smiled slightly as Finnick finagled his way onto the hospital bed, somehow getting me to sit between his legs with my back against his chest. I looked up at him, ignoring the pain in my neck as he leaned down and kissed me again, "I was worried about you."

"You're always worried about me." I mumbled, and looked at the wall across from us, "You don't think about yourself…Dad already told me everything."

He grimaced and grabbed my hands, "Yeah."

We fell silent and Finnick played with my hands, "They hijacked Peeta."

"We know. He attacked Katniss when Haymitch took her to see him."

"That was stupid for him to do."


	8. Chapter 8

**Finnick – Age 24**

_Annie's eyes were crazy, they were searching through things that weren't in front of her, trying to find something that wasn't there._

_"Annie." Tentatively, I touched her arm, trying to bring her out of the Games, trying to let her know that she was safe now._

_I didn't know that touching her was a mistake until she had me pinned to a wall, a scalpel that someone had carelessly left in the room pressed again my neck._

_"Annie." I didn't want to push her away from me, wouldn't have even dreamed about it before, but this wasn't the same girl that I'd grown up with and had tried to protect…this wasn't Annie._

My eyes flew open, showing a hospital room and it took me a minute to realize that the room wasn't meant for me. The person that this room currently belonged to was still asleep in my lap, her shaved head lying on my chest. Someone had turned off the lights and put a blanket over our legs. I suspected that it had been Haymitch, but I couldn't be sure, so I let it alone.

I turned my attention to the girl in my arms. Calla didn't look good, Haymitch had told me what had happened before they found her, and it made me want to kill Snow even more. But I also wanted to make him pay for what he'd done to us…maybe we could stick him in a pool of water and electrocute him. Let the man know what it felt like. I grimaced and stored the idea away for later, deciding to talk to Katniss about it…she would probably agree with me.

"Finn?" Calla yawned and lifted her head from my chest, her gray eyes finding mine through the darkness of the hospital room.

"What Callie?" I was whispering, and I wasn't sure why, but Calla didn't seem to mind.

"You okay?" she whispered too, and I smiled at her, moving to brush her hair behind her ear before I realized that she didn't have any right now.

I nodded and moved the hand I was going to brush her non-existent hair with on her knee, rubbing circles on it with my thumb. "Just a nightmare. You should go back to sleep Callie."

"Are you going to stay here?" she mumbled the question and I smiled in response, kissing the top of her head.

"I'm not going to leave you again."

Calla seemed happy with that answer, and she snuggled into my chest again, "I love you."

I was silent, my heart clinching in surprise. I knew what to say back to her; had wanted to say it since she was seventeen and had been thrown into the arena. It was strange though, I had always imagined that I would say it first…and they definitely weren't under these circumstances.

"I love you too, Callie." I spoke finally, smiling as the words came out of my mouth and Calla nuzzled my chest before she fell asleep.

* * *

"All I'm saying is that I don't want to sit around here while everyone else is out there fighting. So I'm not staying." Calla was arguing with Haymitch, her voice getting louder as she got angrier.

I held back, watching the two yell at each other surprised, the two didn't normally fight like this, at least from what I'd seen over the years, but Calla wasn't going to back down on this…and neither was Haymitch.

"Yes you are."

They were arguing over the fact that Calla wanted to start going to training, she wanted to go with everyone when we left to take the Capitol. I had mixed feelings about the whole ordeal though. On one hand, I understood that she wanted to help, Snow had had her tortured…but on the other hand, I didn't want her in danger anymore than she had been. I wanted her to be safe, and she couldn't be if we were on some mission.

Calla huffed and ran a hand through her growing hair. It was still short, but it was coming back, becoming curly. I liked it short, she looked both dangerous and beautiful with how it looked now, but it wasn't the same Calla with her hair that way. She had changed enough after her Games, and she'd changed even more when they'd rescued everyone.

She was more vulnerable now, her nightmares, which I hadn't know much about before, were sometimes excruciating and she would scream like she was still in that pool getting electrocuted. Sometimes it was hard to get her to eat…hell it was hard to get her out of bed and into the public that was District 13. I worried that if she went with us, it would end with something like that, all of her will would just disappear one morning and whoever she was working with would just disappear and leave her alone. I wasn't going to lose anymore of her to Snow, I'd already lost her enough as it was.

"No I'm not and there's nothing that you can do about it. Cressida and Plutarch both agree that the rebellion needs as many healthy and young victors as possible. I can help them." Her voice had turned soft and pleading, almost willing Haymitch to understand why she needed to go, "And I want to prove to Snow that he didn't win. I'm alive and I'm going to help take him down."

Her father's eyes softened a bit, surprising me. He understood why she wanted to go too, but he was also so worried about with the state that she had been in lately that he was probably thinking the same way I was.

If that happened, Haymitch would be sure to kill every single person that left her behind.

"I'm going." She spoke again, her voice both pleading and firm, like she was trying to convince herself more than her father.

Haymitch nodded at her, agreeing with her now before she left happily, going to training. He turned to look at me, "If she doesn't start eating…or getting better, she's not going."

"Alright."


	9. Chapter 9

**Finnick – Age 16**

I walked into the hall, looking through the crowd and finding Mags, standing with Chaff. The woman caught my eye and smiled before turning back to the man before her as Haymitch came to greet them. I looked around, trying to find someone to talk to before I had to meet my client for the night, for my first time here with Snow forcing me to have clients, I was certainly popular…and it disgusted me.

Still looking around, I spotted a girl, looking almost exactly like Haymitch, who seemed just about as lost as I felt. So, taking a detour to grab a handful of sugar cubes, I walked over to the girl.

"You look a little lost." I came up behind the girl, causing her to turn around and look up at me. Her eyes were gray, a common sight for the people of District 12, her hair was losing the straight look that it seemed she had tried to keep it in, the bottoms becoming a bit curly. Her eyes widened in surprise and she looked me up and down, her face heating up with a slight blush.

"I'm not lost."

I laughed and popped a sugar cube into my mouth, chewing on it as I looked at her face. It was defiant as she spoke to me, her eyes melting into a hard look before turning to one of confusion as she watched me eat the sugar cube.

"Coulda fooled me."

Her eyes returned to that hard look, reminding me of a hurricane out on the sea, "I'm not."

"Yeah." I ate another cube of sugar and then held my hand out, feeling rude, "Oh, want a sugar cube?"

She looked at me like I was high on morphling, "No, thanks."

"Alright, I'm Finnick by the way." I smiled at her, enjoying the small little game that I was playing with her. It was funny seeing her expressions and feelings in her eyes, they didn't hide much.

Her eyes widened a bit when I said my name and then returned to normal, "People call me Calla."

"That doesn't mean it's your name." I shot back at her.

She bit her lip cutely, "Callalilly."

"Wow." I laughed, finding the odd name quite fitting for the girl in front of me.

"Like I said, people call me Calla." Her eyes narrowed in response to my comment, taking it in the wrong context, "for good reason."

"Callalilly isn't that bad." In fact, I liked it. It was odd and very much like her eyes…uncommon. Even though the gray was a common color for District 12, there was something different in them from what I'd seen from the other tributes from there over the years. Maybe it was just the way that they seemed to show me what she was thinking at the moment that intrigued me the most about them though.

"You haven't had to live with it for fifteen years."

So she was fifteen, she didn't seem like she was that young, but then again, she was the daughter of a Victor, and she didn't seem like the spoiled type. I shrugged at her comment, giving her a small laugh, "Maybe not."

"Calla." One of her eyebrows lifted as she turned to the sound of another voice. The man, Haymitch, put a hand on her shoulder, "How are you doing Finnick?"

Her father looked at me, a concerned look on his face as he looked at me. Mags had told him, she trusted the District 12 man, but I hadn't had much interaction with him to know.

"Haymitch." I nodded to him and then turned as a woman, probably my client for the night, called my name, "Nice meeting you Calla."

I walked away, leaving the girl with his father as I walked over to a tattooed woman that was sporting a yellow wig to match Caesar Flickerman's. She really disgusted me, like the other people who paid for me to sleep with them and hang on their arms for the night.

I hated the Capitol.

* * *

I walked out into the hallway of the apartment Mags and I were currently sharing, glad to have been able to get off the hook for the night because of how busy the Games had gotten on the first night. Both of 12's kids were gone, and I was wondering how Haymitch was taking it, wondering what Calla had thought about it. Haymitch had stormed out of the party when it had happened, his daughter following him with a worried look in her eye…she didn't look worry for her safety though, actually she had acted as if she was far more concerned for his safety, especially when he was turned a tray of food over as he left the main room.

Opening the door, I saw a figure walk passed me and head toward the window where the lights from outside lit her profile. Calla was apparently just as tired of being cooped up in these apartments as I was. I watched her silently for a moment, seeing her sigh and lean into the window, looking outside for a moment before I decided to talk to her.

"How angry is your Dad?"

She turned quickly, her gray eyes once again holding surprise, but also a bit of fear at the sudden interruption, "Pretty pissed."

"He seemed like it earlier." I nodded and looked out the window, hearing the sounds of the after party the people of the Capitol were still having after the Games were pretty much over for the night.

Calla sat down, listening to the sounds as well, "He's sort of over the whole thing."

"I would be too if I'd been mentoring as long as he had." I agreed with her and then sat down, pulling my knees to my chest.

"What're you doing?" she looked over at me, a slight look of outrage on her face as she saw me move.

I returned her comment with a small chuckle, "Sitting here. What does it look like?"

"Maybe I came out here to sit alone."

I smiled at her, a sad smile as I thought about Snow's proposal for a moment, "Maybe I did too."


	10. Chapter 10

**Callalilly - Age 16 **

"You know, sometimes I wonder what the point of all this is." I looked over at Finnick as he looked down at his hands.

He had been depressed in the past couple of days, not that I blamed him; there had been an influx of men and women that were paying Snow for his…services. And the girl he told me he had been in love with was currently in the Games, fighting for her life. I felt bad for him, he was already stressed out as it was with his nightmares and Snow's clients, he didn't need all of the other added junk that he had on his shoulders now.

I sighed and bit my lip, trying to stop myself from giggling at how stressful the situation was becoming. I didn't want to make him anymore uncomfortable than he already felt…he didn't need to think that I was laughing at his problems.

"Why're you biting your lip?" Finnick looked up from his hands, a smile on his face as he returned to his normal self for a moment.

"I have the tendency of laughing when I'm nervous or feeling stressed, and I didn't want to laugh." I looked down at the bracelet that Sterling had given me before we left. A simple little piece of rope that he'd had left after making traps in the woods. It wasn't really that special, and it was already fraying and it had been an afterthought to Sterling when he'd given it to me.

"That's cute." Finnick spoke and I looked up to see he was smiling; I returned the gesture and then untied the rope from my arm.

"Here," I handed the piece of rope to him, thankful that Sterling hadn't tied it into anything to intricate, "take this."

He looked at me like I'd gone crazy, "What exactly is this?"

"Obviously, it's a piece of rope. You mess with your hands a lot when you're stressed…and you like making knots and stuff, maybe if you tied knots when you were stressed it would help."

Turning his attention back to the rope, he looked down at it, tying it into some intricate knot without any trouble, "It might help."

"It will." I smiled at him, biting my lip again as we sat in the hallway of the apartments like we had last year.

He returned the smile, his eyes lighting up in the way the way that they hadn't in days.

* * *

I watched my Dad as he spoke to one of the few sponsors for 12's tributes before looking over at Finnick where he sat with Mags. The rope I'd given him last night was on his arm in a more intricate knot than the one Sterling had made. His eyes were glued to the screen, eating up every shot of Annie Cresta they showed. I felt bad for him, I had never had to deal with someone that I was close to go through the Games and my Dad wouldn't show me his, wouldn't tell me what it was like when he extremely drunk.

Finnick had told me his experience though; he had said that he had never been so scared in his life. He was only fourteen at the time of his Games though; I could imagine him being so afraid of his life. I couldn't imagine being in the Games…let alone being in them and then having to watch someone I love going through the same thing that I went through.

A commercial played for a moment and Finnick sighed before looking around the room and then in my direction. I blushed as our eyes met and then looked away and started bouncing my leg.

"Callie?" I looked up to see the bronze haired seventeen year old standing beside me, using the nickname that he had designated for me a couple of days ago.

"Yeah?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "It works."

"Told you so," I sent him a small smile and then looked at the rope on his arm, "the knot looks good, you should make jewelry sometime."

Finnick laughed slightly, "Right."

"You should. The ladies would love it."

"The ladies love everything I do."

And there it went, the real, flirtatious, cute, Finnick was back for a moment. I smiled wider, "Yeah? I suppose they do. With all the rumors I've heard…they just buzz with excitement."

"Oh course they do. I'm to amazing to resist."

I giggled, nervous now as he spoke and he leaned down, "Don't get nervous on me now Callie."

Shivering, I turned my head to look at him before he straightened and then looked back at the television as the commercial ended, "She's going to be okay Finn."

"I know she will be." And with that he returned to his seat next to Mags.

* * *

Finnick cheered as Annie was presented as the winner of the Games, his fist punching the empty air in front of him. As much as I hated watching people from District 12 dying, I couldn't deny that I was glad that the District 4 girl had won. Finnick couldn't lose anyone else in his life.

I clapped with the other mentors, a bit happier than the rest of them that the winner was in fact this girl. But as I watched the screen…I saw her eyes, they were wide and seemed to be seeing something that definitely wasn't there. I stopped clapping, and saw from the corner of my eye as Finnick did the same, noticing the same thing that I had. I didn't know the girl, but I did know that this wasn't normal behavior. And she had had to watch as her District 4 counterpart was beheaded…anyone who saw something like that and didn't go crazy already had something seriously wrong with them.

The large screen went black and I watched as Finnick ran out of the room, his face covered in worry for the winner of the 78th Hunger Games. I wanted to follow after him, but I knew to leave him alone, he needed to do whatever it was that he was doing alone…I would just cause problems for him.

My Dad sighed and looked over at me and putting his hand on my shoulder, "Come on Calla; let's go back to the apartment."

I nodded and followed him out of the room, ignoring the other mentors as we left.


	11. Chapter 11

**Finnick – Age 18 **

_"The Victor of the 69__th__ Annual Hunger Games is Callalilly Abernathy." _I let out a deep breath that I didn't know I had been holding and then looked over at Haymitch, seeing him doing the same.

Callie was alive, she was coming back...and she was going to be okay.

"Congratulations Haymitch." I pushed through the group of mentors that were hugging the man, all happy that his daughter had survived, "She's coming home."

He smiled and nodded to me, "Whatever you did…thank you."

I returned the gesture; I hadn't done that much really, just sent her a piece of bread when she looked ready to be finished with the whole thing. She knew what it had meant though… she got out of the tree she had been occupying and she won.

Looking back at the screen I saw Calla's face, searching for the look that Annie had had when she'd won…but other than looking freaked out and tired, her sanity seemed to be, somewhat, intact. Haymitch followed my gaze, probably searching for the same thing before the screen turned black.

"She's okay." I looked back at Calla's father, speaking the words before I pulled at the piece of rope she'd given me last year, taking it off of my wrist and tying it into a knot before undoing it just as quickly as I had made it.

* * *

"Calla!" I walked toward the girl, seeing her in the light blue dress that her stylist had placed her in. There were blue flowers painted on her face, and even though she had been made to look like some product of the Capitol, she looked beautiful…and not crazy.

"Hey Finnick." She gave me a small, broken, smile and I pulled her to me, placing my face in her brown hair and breathing a sigh of relief.

"Are you okay?" I pulled away from her, searching her eyes and finding the answer in them, she wasn't okay…of course she wasn't okay, "That was a stupid question."

She laughed, that little giggle that told me she was nervous, "Yeah it was."

"Everything is going to be okay."

She nodded, not convincing me in the slightest, "I know."

I kissed her again, brushing my lips on hers like at the beginning of the Games and then pulled away from her, giving her another tight hug, "I'll be right by your Dad."

"Okay." She gave me another smile, much stronger than the other one, showing me that she would be okay. Calla wasn't going to let Snow win.

* * *

"Can you tell me what compelled you to win the Games?" Caesar Flickerman's orange hair shone in the lights of the stage for a moment, but everyone was looking at Calla, looking at the girl who was sitting straight in her chair, acting just like her Dad had during his interview after winning the second Quarter Quell.

Calla looked away from the talk show host and found my eyes in the audience before they flickered to Haymitch beside me, "Well…the only real reason was because of my Dad. I'm the only family he has left."

"I remember when your father was up here himself after winning the second Quarter Quell, it seems fitting that you should follow in his footsteps." Caesar nodded at her answer, satisfied with it like he had been expecting it.

She laughed in response to his words and then looked up at the screen as they showed the first day, showing the massacre at the Cornucopia. Her counterpart had been killed by Seth, the male tribute of 4 when Mitchell had gone to get a weapon, but when they showed Calla, she had grabbed a bag and had gotten out of there, leaving the weapons for later, and doing exactly as Haymitch had told her to do.

"Can you tell me a little about the other tribute from 12?"

Calla took a moment to answer as she tried to compose herself for the audience, "Mitchell was my age…he worked in the mines in town, so I didn't really know him. But in school he was pretty popular, the girls loved him."

The crowd laughed and I saw in Calla's eyes that she was disgusted, she couldn't hide her thoughts from me, and her gray eyes were like an open book. But she continued smiling, turning out to be quite the little actress for the people of the Capitol. I could just imagine the people that Snow was lining up for her…and it sickened me to think that Snow was going to do the same to her as he'd done to me. We weren't pieces of meat.

They started showing more clips, showing Calla running away from the poisonous tarantula mutts the Gamemakers had added and then showing as she killed the eighteen year old tribute from District 9 by stabbing him in the chest as he attempted to do the same to her. The next clip appeared, showing her in a tree, the day after her first kill in the arena. She had scared me when I saw this on the television screen, Calla looked like she was ready to jump off of the large branch and give up, but as it continued, a silver parachute landed on her lap, causing her to jump from surprise for a moment. She threw it open and stared at the contents before pulling out a slip of paper and smiled at it.

_"Win for me." _

Those were the last thing I had said to her before she had gone into the arena…and I knew that it would keep her going, knew she would win for me.

And I'd been right, she did win for me. Calla wasn't leaving me just yet.

* * *

_"I'm worried about her Finnick. She's having nightmares." _

I sighed, holding the receiver of the phone with my shoulder as Haymitch spoke to me. I was in District 4 for another week before I had to go back to the Capitol to continue with a client. I'd known she would have nightmares, we all did after the Games, still had them…even if it had been years since, but Haymitch was worried about her and it made me worried too. Haymitch didn't worry over nothing, he wasn't capable of just worrying without something to cause it.

"I'll talk to her the next time I see her Haymitch." It wouldn't do anything, talking to people never worked, but I knew it would ease Haymitch a bit.

He sighed, _"Okay."_

I could hear in his voice that he knew from experience it wouldn't work. But it did help him a bit to know that I was worried about her too. The last time I had seen her she had had dark circles under her eyes and she looked ragged, but she was still more beautiful than all the women of the Capitol and even in District 4 put together.

"Callie's gotta deal with this stuff on her own though. She's like you, too stubborn for her own good." I spoke again, trying to lighten the mood, if I had been talking to Calla, she'd have been giggling from the seriousness of the situation, and I sort of missed the sound.

Haymitch chuckled, _"That she is."_


	12. Chapter 12

**Callalilly – Age 22**

I sat on the bullet train in my room, thinking about the two District 12 tributes this year. Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark were an interesting pair. We had our first volunteer thanks to Katniss…and I had to wonder if that could help us get sponsors, especially since she volunteered for her little sister, people in the Capitol loved that kind of thing, it could definitely help her.

Peeta on the other hand didn't seem like much. He was the baker's son, but I didn't know anything else other than that…As we talked though, it seemed as if he was good at smooth talking, and that could also help him for the Games. Maybe he could talk his way into the career group. But I didn't see any potential for Peeta with fighting.

Gale had told me, however, that Katniss could use a bow…I'd never seen it myself, but it would definitely help the girl during the Games. Hunting was important to the Games; it was the same with people as it was with animals.

My Dad was unimpressed with them, and had already vomited over the carpet; Peeta helped put him to bed, which was definitely a ploy to get on his good side. He had fell off the stage earlier during the reaping today, his stress levels sky rocketing due to the Games, he'd started drinking more after my Games…but I was angry that he was drinking more now, he needed to take care of these kids, not write them off as already lost causes.

I was also upset because Katniss was the female tribute this year. I didn't know her very well either, but I still spoke to Sterling's family and helped them out whenever possible…and Gale was absolutely smitten with her, even if the eighteen year old wouldn't admit it.

"That guy is to hard-headed for his own good." I mumbled, running a hand through my hair and giving a small chuckle.

I didn't know what to do for Peeta and Katniss, and I felt bad. If my Dad had been sober and had had faith in these kids, he'd have already had a plan figured out for them. I figured that I would just have to figure it out on my own in the morning; I doubted my Dad would even make it to breakfast.

* * *

"Here's some advice: Stay alive."

I walked in right as Peeta crushed my Dad's glass of wine, earning the blond kid a swift punch in the face that landed him on the ground. I crossed my arms, surprised as I watched Katniss stabbed a knife into the table, almost hitting my Dad's hand as she stopped him from reaching for the wine bottle. I raised an eyebrow, slightly impressed with the two of them. Most tributes didn't argue with my Dad's drinking habits, they'd all mostly written themselves off for dead, but I was glad Peeta and Katniss were fighting back, not writing themselves off.

District 12 needed more fighters.

"That is mahogany!" Effie yelled at the District 12 girl, angrily. I laughed and everyone else ignored her.

My Dad nodded at the two of them, happy with their performance, "Alright, here's the deal." He paused for a moment, "I will help you guys…if you don't interfere with my drinking."

And that was how it began.

* * *

_"The winners of the 74__th__ Hunger Games are Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen." _

I cheered my smile a little too plastered on. The stunt that Katniss had just pulled was an extremely dangerous one, she had just defied Snow…and he wasn't going to take that lightly. I ran a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath before someone came up behind me and whispered in my ear.

"Whatever the hell stunt that was…" Finnick spoke, his voice clouded with worry, "Snow is not going to be happy."

I grimaced in response, "I know."

He turned me around, and facing him, I saw the worry that had been in his voice reflected clearly in his eyes, "Be careful."

"I'm always careful," I smiled at twenty three year old man, a real one this time, "Whatever happens, happens Finn."

Finnick rolled his eyes at me, "I don't care about that. I just want you to be careful, I'm not losing you because some seventeen year old is being selfish and doesn't want to go back home and see the faces of that kid's family."

"She loves him…"

"Bullshit." His eyes were the most serious that I had seen them in a long time and it made me stop protesting. I knew what Finnick didn't want to say, he wouldn't say it unless he'd had a few drinks anyway. He didn't want to lose me like he'd lost Annie.

"I'll be careful."

His eyes softened, "You better be."

We stared at each other for a bit reading our thoughts through the other's eyes before Finnick looked behind me at the screen again. I wanted to say something to him to let him know that I would be okay, nothing was going to happen…but I knew he wouldn't believe me and I also didn't know if I believed it myself. This was Snow we were talking about; he didn't like looking like a fool…and with the stunt that Katniss had just pulled, he looked like the biggest fool of all in his eyes.

Finnick sighed and shook his head before looking back at me and grabbing my hand. He squeezed it and looked at it, his thoughts elsewhere for a moment before he let my hand drop back to my side and walked away.

* * *

"Finn?" I opened the door to the Capitol apartment, yawning and rubbing sleep from my eyes, "What's wrong?"

The twenty three year old man looked at me, one hand stuffed in his jacket pocket and the other one raised to knock on the door again, "Hey Callie."

"What's wrong Finn?" He was acting weird and I couldn't understand why. If anything it was Katniss that Snow would go after, she was the one that had defied him…but then my thoughts ran to Gale and how his older brother had paid for my mistake and I understood. Snow didn't hurt you directly; he hurt those that you cared about the most to send a message.

"You wanna come in?"

He nodded and followed me inside, closing the door behind him and stripping off his jacket, Finnick proceeded to follow me into the kitchen as I made coffee.

"So…um?" I bit my lip and giggled nervously, unsure of what to say.

Finnick was in one of his rare moods where he was silent, lost in his old world. I was pretty sure that he had just finished up with a client…he could get this way if it had been worse than his usual experiences.

He didn't respond, instead, he closed the gap between us, his lips brushing mine as he pulled me into a hungry kiss. Backed up onto the counter, I returned the kiss, equally as hungry as his, I didn't fully understand why he was doing this, but I also didn't care. Ever since that first kiss before my Games, I craved his kisses and coveted each and every one that he gave me.

Lifting me up, Finnick sat me on the countertop, surprising me slightly as he situated himself between my legs, our lips only disconnecting when one of us needed air. He wove his fingers in my hair, tangling the curly mess even more until, eventually, we pulled apart. His sea-green eyes still held a hungry look, but also held the fear and worry that always seemed to be in his eyes when he looked at me.

"You're so beautiful," Finnick whispered. My spine tingled and I pushed his blond hair away from his forehead.

"Thank you." I smiled and blushed, not used to the praise coming out of his mouth. The only people that had really told me that I was beautiful were Snow's clients…and by then we were usually both naked and under the covers of their bed.

I had to shake the thought from my head and realize that it was Finnick in front of me and not some man (or woman) that had paid someone else to…be with me for the night. Finnick, who seemed to understand, gave me a small smile and gently pulled me off the counter.

"Come on, you look tired."

* * *

I had never, willingly, slept in the same bed with someone before, so, when I woke up to find someone's arms around my waist and their face in my hair, I thought that it was just another client. And when I noticed that both of us were wearing clothes, with the exception of the man behind me being bare-chested, I was confused.

"Callie?" Finnick mumbled into my ear, his voice clouded with grogginess.

I gave a small sigh of relief and wiggled around in his arms to face him, "Morning."

He smiled and we continued laying like that in the bed, both comfortable in each other's presence. I was surprised that I hadn't woken up from a nightmare, considering my track record with sleeping; it was strange that I hadn't.

"You didn't have any nightmares." Finnick was still mumbling, our lips touching and his eyes closed.

"You didn't either." I had to admit that last night had been the most sleep I'd gotten since my Games five years ago.

"Maybe we should do this more often." Finnick opened his eyes and searched mine, "What are you doing tonight?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Because," he smiled, "I'm taking you to dinner."


	13. Chapter 13

**Callalilly – Age 17**

"I have a proposition for you." Snow leaned forward in the desk of the study that my Dad and I never used. The smell of blood and roses overpowered me as he moved, and I leaned back, trying to put as much distance between the two of us as possible.

I already knew what he was going to say…Finnick had warned me about it after my interview with Caesar Flickerman. Snow had done the same to the District Four male as soon as he had turned sixteen, and I was seventeen, already a year past the age where he forced winners into being his prostitutes. I didn't like the idea...in fact it absolutely disgusted me, I hadn't even really thought about doing anything remotely sexual with someone and now Snow expected me to do it with complete strangers.

When I didn't speak, Snow smiled, "I want you to entertain clients for me. You made quite the impression on the people of the Capitol, they want to…meet you, and, you're going to oblige to their wishes."

"Or what?" I hadn't meant for the words to come out, hadn't meant to speak my mind in front of the devil.

Instead of what I had feared, it earned me a sadistic smile, "I think you know what happens if you say no. But I'll allow you to think about it."

He stood up, walking to the door of the study, "I'll do it."

"I thought you might."

* * *

"Finnick?" I knocked on the door to the apartment, knowing that my green-eyed savior would be inside. We had met on the train here and he had given me the directions to his apartment, which I was thankful for now. I didn't want to break down in the middle of a hallway.

It was midnight, but I knew Finnick wouldn't be with a client tonight, he would have one tomorrow, and Snow had wanted him to come in early for some reason that was unknown to the District Four male. I knocked again, worried that I was actually going to have to break down out in the hallway when he opened the door. His sea-green eyes were clouded with sleep and his shirt was both inside out and on backwards.

"Callie?" He looked at me and, reading my thoughts, grabbed my arm, "Come on."

He pulled me inside his house and slammed the door shut behind us, pulling me into a tight hug as I finally broke down, crying into his shoulder. We stood there, in front of the door for a moment before he pulled me toward the couch, sitting me down and then leaving the room to get the jacket he had been wearing on the train. Sitting down beside me, he wrapped the jacket around my shoulders; covering up the revealing dress I had haphazardly threw on after the whole thing had happened.

"Talk to me." Finnick wrapped his arm around my shoulder and I recoiled from his touch suddenly, going to the edge of the couch we were sitting on, suddenly not wanting the physical contact.

I bit my lip, no nervous giggling threatening to come out this time.

"I can't do this."

* * *

"When I was sixteen, there was this woman that kept asking for me," Finnick looked down at his hands, trying the rope I had given him into another knot, "And once a week, I would go to her place…and she would just sit there and talk to me, no strings attached. Her name was Sylvia and she used to tell me all these secrets about things that most people definitely shouldn't know."

I looked over at Finnick from the chair I was sitting on, my chin resting on my knees as I hugged my legs to my chest, watching the eighteen year old play with the rope, "Why'd she do it?"

"She told me that she didn't want me to think that everyone from the Capitol was horrible."

"Did it change your view on the Capitol?" He looked up from the piece of rope, looking across the room at me.

Finnick had been giving me a lot of space lately, and for that I was glad…I didn't want anyone to touch me and he know exactly what I needed, "No, not really."

"I don't think that it would change my mind either." I mumbled, rubbing a hand through my hair and giving a grim smile.

He nodded in understanding, still tying knots, "I want to tell you it gets easier…but that just sounds wrong, and it definitely doesn't get easier."

"Yeah?" I looked up at him again, seeing his eyes on me.

"Everything's going to be okay." The way he looked at me made me believe his words. The sea-green color seemed to darken with certainty, like he would stop all the clients from requesting me when I knew that it wouldn't happen.

We both knew that he couldn't do anything to stop what was happening, but I could tell in his eyes that if he could, Finnick would have done everything in his power to make it stop. I smiled and looked back at my knees, revealing in the silence for a moment before I looked up at him again.

"What's four like?"

Finnick stayed silent, tying another knot, "Well, there are lots of beaches. You know, sand, salt water, warm weather. It's nice, like a constant vacation."

"That makes twelve sound horrible."

He laughed, "Well, what's twelve like?"

"We're a poor district, but people never really seem to dwell on that. I'm closer to a lot of people in the Seam, it's a really low income part of town…Haymitch and my mom both grew up there and my Godfather lives there with his family too. I don't know, everyone knows everyone…and everyone tries to watch after one another. Except for when it comes to the Games of course."

"Of course." Finnick grimaced and tied another knot, looking back down at the rope.


	14. Chapter 14

**Finnick – Age 19 **

I stepped off the train, pushing through the crowd of people to get outside of the station and go to my normal apartment. Calla was waiting for me there, at least she said that she would be, our schedules had been altering more and more and now it was hard to spend any time with her while I was in the Capitol. I knew who was behind that though, knew that Snow wanted to keep her away from me. He wanted her to break, wanted to cause her even more pain…all because she was supposed to have died in her Games as another punishment to her Dad.

Calla was having more trouble recently too. Her friend that she had been close to since they were little had finally found out why she wasn't around as much as she had been before and though he wasn't angry or disgusted with her, the guy had been furious. He wanted her to tell Snow that she quit, and she'd been thinking the same thing since she had started, but I knew the consequences of what would happen if she did tell Snow no. I'd learned that when I was fourteen and had vehemently refused his offer. You didn't say no to Snow without consequences and I didn't want Calla to have to live through that.

* * *

"Hey Finn." Calla smiled at me as I pulled her inside of the apartment with me.

Her gray eyes were dull today, they'd been losing that bright spark since her Games and I was worried that they would just die out like a corpse eventually. I wasn't going to let the storm in her eyes die. I wasn't going to lose Calla to Snow and his clients.

"How've you been Callie?" I smiled at her and closed the door behind us, feeling a small case of déjà vu as I pulled her toward the couch with me. Only a year ago I'd pulled her to the couch and she had flinched away from my touch after having to go through her first night of…entertainment. She'd been doing this thing for a year now, had been selling herself to protect her loved ones, but something inside of her was changing, she wasn't going to be able to do this for much longer, she was losing the internal battle that's she'd been having with herself since Snow's offer. Eventually she was going to give up and say no.

Seeing her now, I knew that I couldn't convince her, she was already making up her mind, all it was going to take was one more thing to make her change her mind. One more thing and she would be pushed to far over the edge.

We sat down on the couch and Calla leaned into me, closing her eyes as I draped my arm around her shoulders, feeling the cold skin of her arms. She wasn't wearing her normal revealing outfits that she was forced into when she came here. In fact, she was wearing something that she would have worn before her Games. It was a modest knee length, long sleeved dress that puffed out at the bottom, the fabric wrinkling as she brought her legs onto the couch and made herself comfortable. I smiled, looking down at her, glad that she was comfortable around me again. If there was one thing that had worried me last year, it was the fact that she might not want to be close to me like she had been before. But I had known the feeling too. After my first time I wouldn't even go near Mags, the woman who had had to raise me after I was fourteen.

"Haymitch told me to tell you he says hello." She mumbled, looking at the TV across from us as they played some badly acted soap opera. I had taken to playing something whenever she was here; learning that after her Games she got jumpy if there was too much silence. It reminded her of the arena, when there was nothing to do to protect herself from the last career but stay silent until the District 2 male tribute had went to sleep.

"Tell him I said hey when you go home." We smiled at each other and then fell silent again, looking at each other.

According to the other mentors, we did this a lot, just looked into each other's eyes for drawn out periods of time. I hadn't noticed it until someone had mentioned the fact, but that hadn't changed the fact that we still did it. It was like we could read each other's minds when we did this. I knew what she was thinking and she knew what I was thinking. All it took was staring into the others eyes for a few moments.

"You know, I was fourteen when Snow offered his job to me the first time." The words came out quicker than I meant them to. I hadn't meant to actually tell her this because I knew that it wouldn't change her mind…and it also scared me. The intense guilt that I felt whenever I thought about it was almost suffocating, Mags was the only person who knew about it, but now that the words had come out I was kind of glad. It took some of the crushing weight off of my chest.

Calla looked up at me, her eyes holding nothing, she knew that I just wanted her to listen, I didn't want anything else from her but to listen to me, "What happened?"

"Well, I was at the beach one day, swimming goofing around. I had yelled at my little sister earlier that morning because she was complaining about me leaving her at the house with nothing to do…and I was just about to go back to the house and apologize to her when all of a sudden, there was this loud boom and a bunch of smoke was rising from victor's village. So, I ran there from the beach and when I got there and this huge crowd of people was standing around my old house, looking at it with these sad expressions and not doing anything." I stopped, taking a deep breath as the memory took over everything else for a moment. Calla squeezed my hand, bringing me back to her as I continued, "I went to run into the house, you know, to see if they were in there and if they were, I was going to bring them back. I figured, I won the Hunger Games, I could definitely going inside of a burning building and save both my parents and my little sister. But Mags grabbed me before I could do it…she said it was a lost cause, I was the only one who had left my house that day."

I stopped talking, looking at the TV but not really seeing what was happening on it. All I could see was the fire that had come out of my sister's second story window, the screech as glass broke from another one of the windows and forced the shards out into the street. I could feel as Mags grabbed my arms, much stronger before her stroke, forcing me away from the inferno that had belonged to my family for only a month. …I could feel the looks of everyone in 4 watching me as I fell to my knees and screamed at the sight before me. Could feel the tears on my face before I could wipe them away.

"Finn?" Calla touched my face, her voice low and careful as she called my attention away from the memory.

I shook my head and looked down at her, reading the concern in her eyes before I leaned down and caught her lips with mine, breathing in her scent. She smelled like a forest mixed with the slight scent of blackberries and though my favorite smell always would be the sea…this was definitely a close second and it brought me back to reality, driving the memory that I had been reliving away.

"Sorry," resting my forehead against hers, continuing to breath in her scent, trying to memorize it so that I would have it later tonight when I would need her the most and wouldn't have her.

* * *

"I'll see you later Finn." Calla smiled at me as she walked to the door, and turned around to look at me, her gray eyes showing some of that old spark that used to be in them, "I don't have anything until tomorrow night, maybe we could meet back here?"

I nodded at her, "Yeah, we'll meet back here."

Before she could turn around, I pulled her to me again, kissing her quickly before letting her leave. She would be late otherwise and Snow wouldn't like it if she was late.

"Be safe Callie."

She laughed, understanding the hidden meaning behind the words, "You too Finn."

* * *

I walked into the party, immediately catching the eye of the woman who was my client for the night. This one actually looked normal, with her long brown, slightly curly, hair and tan skin…I actually liked her until I actually noticed that she was trying to copy Calla. As I got closer, I noticed that she was wearing contacts that were about three shades darker than the actual color of Calla's eyes and she was about a foot taller than the eighteen year old. I found it a little sickening that she was trying to look like her though, if I was going to sleep with someone that looked like Calla I would just go ahead and sleep with Calla.

"Hello Finnick." The woman walked up to me, her smile wide and her Capitol accent making my name sound weird. As much as this chick seemed to want to look like the District 12 woman I had become so close to, she would never sound like her.

_This is probably all some ploy from Snow._ I thought as I moved toward her, the act that I always put on for my clients and for the Capitol coming on. I wasn't going to allow myself to be the person that I showed Calla around this woman. She didn't even walk like her, in fact she looked like she was having trouble walking in the heels that she was wearing.

"Hi."

Anti-Calla stuck her hand out, "I'm Selena Snow."

"What?"

I spoke without thinking, my Capitol façade disappearing for a moment out of shock. Snow didn't have any family from what I heard and I had heard a lot of secrets about President Snow.

"I'm President Snow's granddaughter." Selena nodded and I looked at her, trying to see passed the fake Calla impersonation to see if there were any similarities between her and the man that I hated so much, "Anyway, this is my eighteenth birthday party and my grandfather thought that you would be a good gift."

She smiled at me, a large smile, seeing no problem with the words that she had just spoken. I held back the words that I wanted to say, slipping back into what the people of the Capitol expected of me, "Well, I guess tonight is your lucky night."

* * *

I sat up in the bed, being careful not to wake up Selena from beside me as I grabbed my discarded clothes from the floor and quickly throwing my pants on and then walking out of the hotel room we had arrived to last night. It was four in the morning, but I didn't want to be here when Selena woke up, everything about her disgusted me.

Walking out of the hotel room, I threw my shirt on and left the building, moving passed the people who were still, miraculously, awake as I headed toward my apartment. Calla would be there soon as well, and I wanted to talk to her about what had just happened, wanted to tell her about Snow's granddaughter.

* * *

I sighed, looking at the clock on the television. It was eight o'clock and Calla still wasn't here, I was worried that something had happened; we normally met here when I arrived and now, after four hours, she still wasn't here.

Crossing to the other side of the room, I shook my head, trying to figure out why she wasn't here yet. I'd been pacing for the past three hours, the rope that I tied knots with sitting on the table beside the couch. It hadn't helped me this time, instead of taking my mind off of Calla it just made me think of her even more.

A sudden knock made me sprint to the door, sending it flying open as I took in the woman standing in front of me. Calla was only wearing a man's oversized, button up, shirt that barely covered anything. But my attention was focused mainly on her face.

Someone had hit her, a couple of times it seemed. Her right eye and cheek was swollen and black, her lip was swollen and bleeding slightly, and there were scratches going down her neck that were also bleeding. I saw red for a moment, anger getting the best of me before I reminded myself that Calla was standing in front of me and I pulled her inside.

"What the hell happened?" I sat her down on the couch, forcing myself to do it calmly before I walked into the kitchen and grabbing a wash cloth, wetting it with cold water and walking back to her. Leaning down in front of her, I touched the cloth to her cheek, wincing a bit as she recoiled away from it, "Sorry."

She closed her eyes, letting me touch her cheek again with the cloth, "I'm not exactly sure what happened. The guy got drunk and pissed off."

I was silent as Calla told me what happened. She'd gone home with her client like normal, and he'd gotten drunk, something that clients normally did to help them deal with the 'guilt' of sleeping with people who were much younger than they were. But, unlike most of the clients, instead of getting sappy and sentimental, this one had just gotten angry and claimed that she hadn't done everything that he wanted her to.

This had never happened before, at least from what I'd seen, no one had ever had to deal with physical abuse and I was not happy about this.

"Do you think I could maybe get off in 4? I'll tell my Dad that the train got held up or something."

I sighed, understanding why she wouldn't want her Dad to see this. Haymitch Abernathy was protective of his only daughter, I'd seen his protectiveness first hand when she was sixteen and some Capitol man started flirting with her at one of the Games' parties. Seeing this would set him off worse than anything like that, worse than the times when his tributes died in the Games…there would be hell to pay if Haymitch saw Calla right now.

"Yeah." I stood up again, going back into the kitchen, "Come on, I have some clothes that you can wear."

I grabbed her hand again, pulling her gently from the couch and walked into the bedroom with her, going to a drawer and letting go of her hand as I pulled out some of the stuff I'd left here over the years.

"Here," I handed her a shirt and a pair of shorts.

"Thanks Finn." Calla smiled slightly at me, wincing a little from her bruised cheek; I returned the smile reluctantly and left the bedroom, giving her some privacy as she changed.

* * *

"So, you will not believe what happened to me last night?" I looked down at Calla as she curled into my side, her eyes drooping a little as she tried to keep herself from going to sleep.

"What? You're client didn't show up?"

I laughed a bit, "No, my client was some girl names Selena Snow."

"What?" Calla pulled away from me, looking into my face with a slightly surprised look, "I didn't know that Snow had any family."

I shrugged, "I didn't either…but she said that she was his granddaughter…"

Trailing off, I looked at her, remembering Selena's horrible shot at trying to look like Calla. I preferred the shade of gray that Calla's eyes were, they were darker than the contacts Selena had been wearing; Calla's eyes looked like the clouds that would appear above the sea when a storm was about to begin. There was also the accent, whereas Selena's was the typical Capitol accent, Calla's was hard to describe, there was a twang to it, one that you couldn't find anywhere but in Districts 11 and 12.

"What're you thinking about?" Calla settled back into my side, nudging my chest with her head a bit as she got comfortable.

I shrugged, "Nothing, I'm still trying to process that fact that someone reproduced with Snow."

She laughed, "Yeah, I never thought a person like Snow would have anyone close to him…you'd think that he would have bumped them off already."

We fell silent then, leaning on each other as we both fell into our thoughts.


	15. Chapter 15

**Callalilly – 23**

Everything was in chaos. Johanna and Katniss had been pulling the string for a while now when I cut it, giving Johanna the go to get the tracker out of her arm as the rest of us moved out of the way, into the next section of the clock.

"Callie." Finnick came to me for a moment, his hair was messy and his eyes were still red from losing Mags, but he still looked exactly like the man I had met when I was fifteen...still the man that could have pulled me from the hole I had dug for myself only five years ago.

I looked behind us at Beetee, watching him as he deliberated for a moment where to hit the force field, "Finn what're you doing?"

He leaned down, giving me one quick kiss, I felt like we were saying goodbye, like he was putting me back on the train home and I was leaving him, "Just in case."

He walked away then, back to where he was supposed to have been in the first place. I looked after him, not liking how that kiss felt. We'd never said goodbye to one another before, it was always 'see you soon', but that was definitely a goodbye kiss. He didn't think one of us would make it out of here alive.

I got my thoughts together and then looked over at Peeta; he had stood there quietly as Finnick came up and now he was smiling, like something fantastic had happened or something. I shook my head at him, "Come on Peeta, we're not far enough away."

We pushed farther into the next time frame, knowing that whatever horror that had been made for this one wouldn't have the chance to do anything; we were getting out of here before it had the chance, and for that I was glad. Finnick had lost Mags, I had unknowingly lost Seeder…we were all losing people in these Games because of not only the arena, but because Gloss, Enobaria, and the other two Career tributes couldn't actually not kill people for the Capitol. It was amazing that only, maybe, three or four days before this whole thing, we were all holding hands and walking off of the stage after our interviews. The people then weren't going to kill the very people that they had made friends with over the years…but the arena changed people, just like it had did Annie Cresta. Some people went crazy, others just became killers.

I pushed Peeta deeper into the forest and then stopped, hoping that we would be far enough away from the blast. I didn't know much about this technical stuff, but I figured that we would be safe from most of the after effects. We were in the middle of the jungle, away from the force field, if the thing broke the way I pictured that it would, we should be safe from most of it.

"Chaff?" I looked at the District 11 man as he came into view, hugging him as Peeta and I ran into him. I was glad to see him, glad to know that my Dad's friend was still alive and would make it out of the arena with us. My Dad needed one friend in 13 with him that wasn't under twenty six.

The older man laughed as we met and we explained the plan that we had told Peeta and Katniss as we went further into the forest.

"There you are." Brutus' voice rang out ahead of us and Chaff and I broke apart from our hug to look ahead.

Brutus stood ahead of us, a malicious smile on his face as he took in Chaff, Peeta, and me. He was holding some sort of long sword that I hadn't seen in the Cornucopia and slowly walking toward us. So much for the hand holding, togetherness, that we had all experienced on the night of the interview. So much for being friends with the other mentors.

I took a large knife out of the holder Finnick had made for me on my belt, knowing that there was no way in hell my little knife would hold back Brutus' sword, but I wasn't going to let this guy come at us…we were trying to get out of this arena alive and I was not going to have someone I was close to die right before we had the chance to escape. I went to walk forward, but Chaff placed his good arm in front of me, blocking my path to fight with Brutus.

Instead, he walked forward, already wielding his normal weapon, a blunt knife, something that he had probably used quite often in District 11. His face held a dangerous look, one that surprised me after seeing Chaff drunk for almost twenty four years. I wasn't used to this side of Chaff and I pushed Peeta back as the two grown men ran at each other, fighting furiously as each one tried to get the upper hand.

Brutus was stronger than Chaff, most likely due to the fact that the District 11 man hadn't had a drink since the beginning of the Quarter Quell. The fact that Brutus was wielding a spear gave him an upper hand and the first stab of the spear head into Chaff's stomach made me wince with pain. Brutus stabbed at Chaff again, the spear going even deeper and my father's best friend fell to his knees, his weapon falling from his hands and his eyes looking around, unseeing for a moment before a canon went off.

"Chaff!" I yelled and fell to my knees as well, feeling the unwanted tears going down my face before I could stop them. I didn't care about Brutus anymore, I had grown up hanging with Chaff and my father as they drank…Chaff had held me as a kid when I was falling asleep during the Games in the mentor rooms. He had used some of his tributes money to send me an apple during my Games.

I didn't know what to do…didn't know what my Dad was going to do. His best friend had died and I hadn't done anything to stop it.

Brutus continued forward, and, just as I thought he was about to move to stab me with his spear, Peeta sprung forward and stabbed him in the neck with the knife that he had been using since the beginning of the Quarter Quell. As another cannon went off, Peeta stepped back, a shocked look on his face as Brutus fell to the ground.

"Thanks Peeta." I spoke quietly, my voice cracking as Peeta kneeled next to me.

The Boy with the Bread's eyes were wide and filled with fear. He had never voluntarily killed someone before, and he had just killed a Career, I could understand why he was so surprised at himself, "Come on Calla, we need to keep going."

I nodded and stood up, allowing Peeta to pull me forward as we left the area we had inhabited. We stopped when we were sure that we were far enough away, however, I underestimated the fact that the force field was all around us. Because, when someone shot at the force field, I wasn't expecting the way that it blew us back the way that it had. Or the fact that the last thing I saw before I was slammed into a tree was the whole force field around the arena breaking apart and falling around us like the pieces of a broken mirror.

* * *

When I came to, I had to blink a few times before I was able to see where I was. I was in a room, hooked the wall, with Peeta, Johanna, and the older version of Annie. The three of them were still out, still oblivious to what was going on. Obviously we weren't in a hovercraft heading to 13, and I didn't see Finnick or any of the other people that mattered. Enobaria was here…but I didn't really care about her, one of her 'friends', Brutus, had killed Chaff, had killed my Dad's best friend in the arena, and she had probably helped him. I glared at the woman for a moment before shaking my head and focusing on what was going on.

We weren't in 13, nor were we heading there, from what I figured. The hovercraft that Plutarch and my Dad managed to get probably couldn't get to all of us…maybe I had pushed Peeta too far out of the range. Finnick, Katniss, and Beetee weren't here, which meant that they were probably in 13 now, safe.

I closed my eyes for a moment, realizing that we were in the Capitol, and saw Chaff's death flashing on the back of my eyelids. Opening them quickly, I looked around again, hoping to find something that would distract me away from the scene that was currently playing on repeat in my head. I couldn't stop remembering the exact moment when Brutus had stabbed Chaff with his spear, the head protruding out of his back from the force of Brutus' blow. It made my thoughts return to my Dad and wonder how he was handling it.

Before the Quarter Quell, while we were in District 12, Peeta had gotten my Dad to stop drinking…and he had kept up with that while we were in the Capitol, however, I didn't know if that would make him return to drinking. I didn't want him to go back to that, he'd been drinking for twenty four years and he'd finally stopped because of Katniss and Peeta, and he didn't need to start again.

"I take it they couldn't get to all of us?" I looked to my left, seeing Johanna as she shook her head, waking up slowly.

I nodded, "Seems like it."

"Well…this sucks."


	16. Chapter 16

**Finnick – Age 24**

I'd already heard the news, so it wasn't that surprising when she walked through the door to the war room with Katniss. I was glad that she was going to be with me, and I could protect her now…the way that I should have before. She walked to my side, her short hair hanging in her face for a moment before she pushed it out of the way with one hand, her other one grabbing my hand and giving it a small squeeze.

I squeezed her hand in returned and watched Plutarch as he addressed everyone in the group, explaining the plan to everyone in the room. The hologram showed up on the table, giving a clear view of the Capitol up to Snow's building. As I looked though, I was seeing similarities to something that I'd gone through twice in my life.

Katniss, Calla, and I all stepped forward looking at the hologram.

"It's an arena." Katniss and Calla both spoke at the same time and Katniss reached out to touch the hologram before the three of us were ordered back in the line.

I grabbed Calla's hand and brought her back with me, seeing that spark in her eye that told me she didn't enjoy being told what to do, especially by Plutarch. But the spark left her eye as I pulled her back, calming her down a bit. Even though she had changed a lot since what Snow had done to her…and even her Games, she could still sometimes get that spark of stubbornness that she used to get before.

* * *

"This is ridiculous." Calla spoke, shaking her head and looking over at Peeta from the corner of her eye as the boy sat there in his handcuffs, clearly as unhappy as the rest of the group that he was there.

I sighed, "It is."

We'd been sitting outside of the camp where our team had been located, the other teams situated where they could fight easily when we would have to sit back and watch as the rest of them did the job that most of us could probably do better than most of the people in the front line. But Coin and Plutarch wanted us as the attractive people of the rebellion.

I'd been the attractive face for the Capitol for years and so had Calla. We'd been discussing it in our tent at night, whispering quietly to each other. Neither of us wanted to be the pretty faces for the rebellion; we were done being everyone's pretty face. All we wanted was for this whole war to be over so that we could go live our lives away from everyone else. We had belonged to everyone else for too long…we wanted to be the rulers of ourselves for a while.

Katniss and Gale sat with us, listening to Calla and I complain about the slowness of everything that was going on. They both agreed with us, had agreed with us for a week. But no one else did…and when Peeta had joined our group, it had made everyone's moods worsen, they didn't want to hear us complaining about the fact that we didn't actually get to help fight in this rebellion.

Calla leaned into me, her hand in mine as we all spoke, all watching Peeta from the corner of our eyes. I didn't have a problem with him; I wanted to help him because I knew that Katniss loved him. She just didn't have faith in him anymore, and Calla…well, she still had trouble being near him, at least when he had handcuffs on; and that was only because he would push his wrists into cuffs, sometimes making them bleed… We were silent, listening to the other camps of rebels around ours, they were rowdier than our group, moving around more and making far too much noise most of the time. If we had been across enemy lines, we'd have all been dead by now because these people didn't know how to be quiet.

I leaned my head on Calla's and closed my eyes, breathing in deeply before I opened my eyes again and looked into the fire, my mind going elsewhere to when my house had burned down when I was fifteen, trapping my mother inside. Calla squeezed my hand and I moved my head, looking at her…she understood, maybe not exactly, but as always, she knew what I was thinking.

"I love you." Whispering in her ear, she moved herself, her gray eyes catching mine as we both watched each other, ignoring everyone else for a moment.

Calla blushed, one of her nervous giggles escaping from her, "I love you too."

* * *

I pushed Calla inside the house after Katniss, getting her away from the tsunami of black, tar-like, material coming toward the group. Getting the rest of the group inside before I came in myself and closed the door, helping Gale cover the cracks that were open toward the street that we had occupied only moments before…before all hell had broken loose.

I looked around, and grabbed Messalla, carrying her inside with me as Leeg 1 and Cressida followed me. We were all coughing, something in the tar most likely.

"Gale!" Katniss shrieked as the he ran in behind us, slamming the door.

"Fumes!" Gale managed to cough out before going to the sink. I set Messalla down and began helping to cover the cracks that faced out.

When I turned back to see how everyone else was, I spotted Calla patting Gale on the back as he retched in the sink and Katniss leaning down to Boggs as he passed her something and, eventually, died.

Katniss called for Boggs, even though it was clear that he was dead, and somewhere…I suspected the closet near the stairs, Peeta was slowly losing energy as he kicked the door, trying to get out. Everything was falling apart and as Calla turned around to console Katniss, I walked toward them.

"He's gone?" I looked down at Boggs, seeing that the blow had taken off his legs. When Katniss nodded I sighed my mentality going straight back to the one that I always seemed to have when I was pushed into the arena, "We need to get out of here. Now. We just set off a streetful of pods. You can bet they've got us on surveillance tapes."

Castor walked over to us then, "Count on it. All the streets are covered by surveillance cameras. I bet they set off the black wave manually when they saw us taping the propo."

Calla looked up at Castor, her mouth set into an unusual grim line as Jackson walked over to the small group that was beginning to gather, "Our radio communicators went dead almost immediately. Probably an electromagnetic pulse device. But I'll get us back to camp. Give me the Holo."

"No. Boggs gave it to me." Katniss clutched the Holo to her chest as Jackson reached for it.

"Don't be ridiculous."

"It's true. He transferred the prime security clearance to her while he was dying. I saw it." Holmes defended Katniss and looked at Jackson with a defiant look.

"Why would he do that?"

Everyone was silent for a moment, unsure about the answer. I looked at Katniss, hoping that she would have some sort of answer, but she didn't seem to have one forthcoming.

"Because I'm on a special mission for President Coin. I think Boggs was the only one who knew about it."

"To do what?" Jackson's tone is defiant. Of course she wouldn't believe that story. It sounded like a lie to me, and I already knew it was. Katniss Everdeen would never be known for being good at lying,

"To assassinate President Snow before the loss of life from this war makes our population unstable." Okay…maybe she was getting better at it.

* * *

We left the house we had holed up in after having a slight standoff between Jackson and Katniss. Thank god for Cressida.

I walked beside Calla, both of us crouched low and looking around, spotting Mitchell's hand in the barbed wire. Calla stared up at it for a moment before she turned her attention back to Katniss.

"If anyone needs to go back, for whatever reason, now is the time. No questions asked, no hard feelings."

No one moved. Of course they didn't, everyone wanted to either see where this was going, or wanted to kill Snow…our only shot was to go with Katniss; so, when she started leading through the tar, everyone followed.

The trek was a long one. The tar made it hard to walk in, and I found my mind wandering to the sand in District 4, remembering how easy it was to walk in. The wave wiped out the pods, which, for us was a good thing; we didn't need another surprise pod coming at us right now…we were all too tired to deal with it. After the fifth block, Gale toke his mask off and said that it was safe, so we all followed suit.

It was easier without the masks, I could see better without it, but I admit it was helpful.

* * *

We walked into another apartment, using the flashlights on our guns until we found the lights and turned them on. We all slump onto the couches and chairs, Calla leaned on me, just like we were back in the Capitol after the two of us slipped away from our clients in the morning. Everyone looked exhausted, Peeta was asleep on a blue sofa, Jackson was pointing her gun at him like he was awake and threatening to kill someone.

As we sat, trying to catch our breath, a sudden chain of explosions rang off in the distance, reminding me of the bombs that Snow had dropped on 13. Calla shot up from my side, her eyes wide as she listens.

"It wasn't close. A good four or five blocks away." Jackson explained. Calla fell back to my side, biting her lip. I wanted to hear one of her nervous giggles…wanted to go back to the conversations we would have when I kidnapped her to 4. I wanted her to be back at 13 with Haymitch where I knew that she would be safe.

"Where we left Boggs." Leeg 1 spoke.

After her words, the television turned on and a high-pitched sound emitted from it, causing Calla, Katniss, Gale, Jackson, and me to all jump to our feet in surprise.

"It's all right! It's just an emergency broadcast. Every Capitol television is automatically activated for it."

I sighed and fell back onto the couch, staring at the television as I wrapped my arms around Calla's waist as they showed our group. Showing the bomb that started the chain reaction and then finishing up by showing Gale and then the black wave that blotted out the cameras and then as they identify the more famous members of our group.

"There's no aerial footage. Boggs must have been right about their hovercraft capacity." Castor spoke up as a reporter showed up on the screen, pronouncing our group dead.

"Finally a bit of luck."

I tuned everyone out for a moment, wondering what Haymitch was thinking, Coin probably had this playing in 13, there was no doubt about that…and now he had to live with the thought that he thought he lost his daughter…the only connection he had left to the woman that Snow killed. Everyone in 13 is probably devastated the most by Katniss' supposed death…she was the Mockingjay.

"My Dad is probably freaking out…" Calla shook her head, closing her eyes.

The television began showing Katniss and all of her crimes against Panem. Everyone was quiet until Gale spoke.

"So, now that we're dead, what's our next move?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Peeta sat up with difficulty due to the cuffs holding his arms, "Our next move…is to kill me."

* * *

After arguing with Peeta, everyone set out to find food for our group, finding it everywhere. The hoarding was disgusting…I could see Calla glaring at the extra cans.

When we were sure that we found everything, we sat down, the hoard of food in the middle of us as we began passing around a box of cookies. I handed the box to Calla, watching her for a moment as she pulled a couple of cookies out and handed the box to Gale before she arranged them on her knee. I smiled and looked away from her, at the television as it started beeping again. It's just pictures of the known people from our group and then Snow, addressing the Peacekeepers.

I didn't even bother to pay attention until the very end.

_"Tomorrow morning, when we pull Katniss Everdeen's body from the ashes, we will see exactly who the Mockingjay is. A dead girl who could save no one, not even herself."_

"Except that you won't find her." I said, glaring at the screen. We wouldn't get much time to rest…we had less than a day...in fact we only had about six hours.

"We can start by getting a head start on them at least. Any ideas?"

"Why don't we start by ruling out possibilities?" I said, "The street is not a possibility."

Leeg 1 piped up, "The rooftops are just as bad as the street."

"We still might have a chance to withdraw, go back the way we came. But that would mean a failed mission."

Katniss sighed, "It was never intended for all of us to go forward. You just had the misfortune to be with me."

"Well, that's moot a point. We're with you now." Jackson said, "So, we can't stay put. We can't move up. We can't move laterally. I think that just leaves one option."

"Underground." I looked over at Calla as she spoke for the first time since the original broadcast that pronounced we were dead. She picked up a cookie from the neat circle that she had placed on her knee, taking a quick bite.

Everyone noded, that was our only hope, the only way to get to the Capitol without getting caught.

"Okay, then. Let's make it look like we've never been here."

So, we all cleaned up, getting rid of our trash and packing up the food we found. Calla handed one of her cookies to Gale, which he accepted with a smile and I walked over to them, feeling jealous. I knew the history that she'd had with his brother, it was, according to her, platonic, but I'd never met him. I also knew that she felt guilty about the mining accident, knowing that she was the reason Snow had blown it up. I knew that I shouldn't waste my time thinking that this was going to do anything…we were about to go into a battlefield so that we could kill Snow, but Callie was mine…she'd been mine since she was seventeen and I'd kissed her that first time.

"Ready to go?" I asked her, giving her smile that she returned.

"Yeah…"she trailed off and handed me her last cookie, "they're a bit too sweet for my liking, but you like your sugar cubes."

I laughed and stuffed it in my mouth, savoring the taste of sweets that I had been missing from living in 13, "Thanks Callie."

With everyone done fixing everything, I grabbed Calla by the waist away from Gale, and toward the backdoor where some of the group had started the gather. But Peeta was sitting on the couch, refusing to move and being stubborn. Calla rolled her eyes at him.

"I'm not going. I'll either disclose your position or hurt someone else."

"Snow's people will find you." I try.

Peeta shook his head, "Then leave me a pill. I'll only take it if I have to."

"We're not leaving you here." Calla's voice wass just as stubborn as Peeta's; it must have been a 12 thing…because Katniss was acting the same way…it was that same stubbornness that I had only though Haymitch and Calla had.

"That's not an option. Come along." Jackson wasn't helping as she spoke, trying to drag him up.

"Or what? You'll shoot me?"

Homes shook his head, "We'll knock you out and drag you with us. Which will both slow us down and endanger us."

"Stop being noble! I don't care if I die!" Peeta did understand that he would endanger us if we had to carry him knocked out. But he also saw that we'd do it…his voice wass desperate as he turned to look at Katniss, "Katniss, please. Don't you see, I want to be out of this?"

Calla sighed, biting her lip, "We're wasting time. Are you coming voluntarily or do we knock you out?"

It took a moment, but finally, Peeta rose from the couch, clearly not wanting to go.

"Should we free his hands?"

"No!" Peeta pulled his arms closer to him, as Leeg 1 walked toward him.

Katniss shook her head, "No, but I want the key."

Jackson handed it to her and then we leave through the utility closet, Messalla making some comment about how it was such an inconvenience to having a utility closet instead of a downstairs bathroom. I look at him, unbelieving…Capitol people were seriously spoiled.


	17. Chapter 17

**Callalilly – Age 17**

I stood in the seventeen year old female group, looking around at the people in the square before catching my Dad's eye on the stage. He had started drinking early, having said that he was worried this would be my year. I knew he was right though…Snow had a way of doing that to people, and when my Dad had used the force field surrounding the arena as a weapon in his Games, it had meant his family, and my mother's, demise.

I looked across the way to the male section, catching Sterling's eye as we nervously looked at each other. His name was in the bowl sixty times this year…mine was supposedly only in thirty two, but since I knew I was getting chosen anyway, I didn't want Sterling to be picked. There was no way that I would be able to kill him if it came to that. We nodded to each other, both saying good luck in the gesture as Effie walked onto the stage.

"Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor."

I scowled…that had to be the worst slogan ever.

"Ladies first."

How courteous.

"Callalilly Abernathy."

I took a deep breath, forcing my face to have the expression of indifference on it as I walked up to the stage. I knew I wasn't going to win…I wasn't supposed to. Snow and the Gamemakers would do everything in their power to make sure that I lost.

Effie smiled as I arrived on the stage, "You wouldn't happen to be the infamous daughter of Haymitch Abernathy would you?"

"Yes." I wanted to hit this woman…of course I was Haymitch's daughter…how many people in Panem had the last name of Abernathy? People of the Capitol were stupid.

She smiled, uncomfortable with the one word answer, "Well…may the odds be in your favor this year."

"Thanks."

I stepped back, watching as Effie walked to the other bowl.

_Not Sterling…not Sterling…not Sterling._ I repeated the words in my head, looking directly at him. His gray eyes were hard and angry, but there was also a hint of worry in them.

"Mitchell Pine."

I let out the breath that I had been holding and watched as Mitchell walked onto the stage. He was from the Seam, and we hadn't spoken to each other before, but he was huge, much bigger than me and as he walked onto the stage he ignored me, even when we had to shake hands.

I definitely wasn't making it out of the arena.

* * *

**Haymitch – Age 35**

"Listen, when you get into that arena, run away from the Cornucopia, don't even bother with it. Run away and look for water."

I looked at Mitchell, seeing in his eyes that he wasn't listening to me…Calla however I could tell was listening intently, she knew I was right, had seen more than enough Games to know that I was right. Few people made it out of the Cornucopia when they went to get weapons. I was worried about her, but I knew that she could at least last for the first couple of days, but after that, when there were fewer kids in the arena to go after…I couldn't help but think that she would be the target.

However, she was probably going to be a target from the beginning…children of Victors always were. I could remember the year after Calla's mother had died one of District 6's Victor's kids went in, they'd died on the second day and the person had been pretty sadistic about it, slowly killing them. If something like that happened to Calla…

I didn't know what I was going to do if I lost her.

I looked over at Chaff as he arrived in the remake room. He looked the same as always and we hugged for a moment.

"Sorry about Calla, but she'll be okay…she's watched enough Games to know what to do and what not to do." His words sounded hollow to me, and Chaff seemed to understand that as well.

We fell silent and everyone took their places. I couldn't see Calla for a moment, but when I did, I felt the blood fall from my face.

"What the hell is that?" I looked at the black paint, seeing that it was the only thing that she was wearing before I turned away, going in the direction of 12's remake rooms, where, hopefully, the costume designer was. My seventeen year old daughter was not going to go out in front of the Capitol naked. I didn't want her going out into the Capitol period.

"Haymitch, think about this." Chaff followed close behind me, "You're just going to get her into trouble. You don't want to piss anyone off just yet."

I sighed, knowing that he was right, "I need a drink."

"Just one." I rolled my eyes and left the room, looking forward to getting a drink…one that was probably going to be my last until Calla either died or won the Games.

* * *

"Here." I threw a blanket around Calla's shoulders, watching as she clutched to it tightly and used the fabric to rub some of the black stuff off of her face.

"Thanks Dad." She smiled at me and I looked over at Mitchell, throwing the second blanket at him.

We stood there, waiting for a few more tributes and mentors to go to their rooms so that we could get to the elevator when I caught sight of Finnick heading in our direction. He looked about as happy about Calla's non-existent outfit as I did, and as he reached us I nodded to him.

"I really don't think your outfit showed enough." The sarcasm in his voice was evident and my earlier thought was right, he wasn't happy about her chariot 'outfit' either.

"Watch it Odair."

Finnick grinned, "I'm just saying they could have shown a lot more skin. In fact, they really should have actually…I'm sure all of Panem would have eaten that up." Calla rolled her eyes at him, her face growing red, "How're you holding up Callie?"

"I suppose I've been better." Calla shrugged and Finnick looked around, seeing the room that was, now, almost empty.

I took the hint, the two had been friends for almost three years now, I wasn't stupid, so I got Mitchell's attention and walked to the elevator, watching as Finnick grabbed her arm as I pressed the twelve and went up to our floor.

* * *

"So?" I looked up from the couch as Calla came in through the elevator, a small smile on her face as she walked toward her room.

She looked at me, stopping in the hallway, feigning innocence, "So what?"

Clutching the blanket tighter around her, she walked into her room. I shook my head, looking back to the television as I drank my third cup of coffee. She walked out a minute later, fully clothed and her normal color, the smile still on her face as she plopped on the couch.

"Where'd Mitchell go?"

I shrugged, "His room. What'd Finnick have to say?"

"Nothing."

I looked over at my daughter, and eyebrow raised, "Right."

Calla sighed, "He just said to win for him."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

I let it drop, knowing that I wasn't going to get a full answer from her. It was times like that when I wished her mother were here. Calla would have spoken to her…hell, Elizabeth would have known exactly how to ask her what had happened, she also would have been the better parent…Elizabeth never had a drinking problem.

"Do you have a plan for training yet?" I looked over at Calla, pushing my thoughts back to the task at hand and changing the subject for what I knew would be a lost cause of getting an actual answer.

She only shrugged, "I was going to spend tomorrow checking out the competition, see what everyone's strengths and weaknesses are…and then figure out where to go from there."

"Sounds good."

* * *

I walked into the large room, looking around as some of the richer Capitol citizens went immediately to the Career mentors to give them money. Had Calla not been in the Games this year, I probably wouldn't have even bothered…I didn't usually come to these things anyway.

"Hey Haymitch."

I looked over, "Finnick."

"So, I have this…friend…and she wants to help sponsor Calla."

"What?" I didn't want to think what Finnick had had to do to get her to sponsor someone from District 12, but whatever he'd done, I was thankful. Snow pushed the better looking Victors toward the rich ones.

"Callie has at least one sponsor." He paused for a moment, "Listen, her name is August Midler. She's the wife of one of Snow's advisors."

"Thanks." I was speechless; Finnick definitely had done something big to get this woman to sponsor Calla.

He smiled, "Just looking out for Calla."

"Well, thank you." I nodded at him and Finnick handed me a piece of paper.

"She said she'd contact you, I'm going to hold her to it, so don't worry about that. But, here's her information just in case."

He walked away then, going back to Mags and I looked at the paper, looking at the amount of money with surprise before seeing the back with another amount on it. I knew who this money belonged to…


	18. Chapter 18

**Finnick – Age 24**

_I was used to having nightmares, used to the ones that were induced by both the Games and now the rebellion. But the one that kept haunting me now never happened…somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew that the person was sleeping in my arms, knew that she was safe. But apparently, my head had other plans. _

_ I could see as the lizard mutt crushed down on her, biting arm to make her drop the knife in her hand. I wouldn't make it to her in time, there were three other mutts blocking my way to help her, but I tried anyway…I was anything if not persistent. It was like I was mentoring again for 69__th__ Games again, watching helplessly as she had to fight the girl from District 1, there was no way she could win…no way that she would be able to do it alone. _

_ As I watched though, I saw as the mutt bit into her neck, puncturing her jugular. I closed my eyes, trying to force the color of her blood from my mind. _

_ "Finn!" _

"Finnick, come on, wake up."

I sat up, looking into her face and pulling her into my chest.

"Finn?"

"I'm okay."

Calla scoffed and pushed against my chest, her gray eyes meeting mine, "Right."

"I am." I smiled at her, glad that she was still here.

She returned the gesture tentatively, searching my eyes for a moment before she gave me her signature giggle and got out of the bed, shaking out her still short hair.

* * *

"What's this?" Katniss walked in and I looked up from Calla's hand as she rubbed circles on my knee.

Haymitch shrugged, "We're not sure. It appears to be a gathering of the remaining victors."

And that was true, there weren't many of us left because of the confusion of the war, but the remaining ones are there, even Annie, who was sitting in her chair, looking ahead of her, probably seeing something that wasn't there, everyone was giving her a berth of space, knowing to stay away from her.

"We're all that's left?"

Beetee nodded, "The price of celebrity. We were targeted from both sides. The Capitol killed the victors they suspected of being rebels. The rebels killed those thought to be allied with the Capitol."

Calla bit her lip, giving a jerky shake of her head that only Haymitch and I seemed to notice. I grabbed her hand, squeezing it, knowing exactly what she was thinking. Victor's never really won…and that was just another show that we really couldn't win.

"So what's she doing here?" Johanna growled, looking in the direction of Enobaria.

I had the same question, she'd went into the Quell to kill…her partner killed Chaff and was going to kill Calla and Peeta, she shouldn't have been there.

"_She_ is protected under what we call the Mockingjay Deal." Coin answered Johanna, walking into the room with that brisk way she had, "Wherein Katniss Everdeen agreed to support the rebels in exchange for captured victors' immunity. Katniss has upheld her side of the bargain, and so shall we."

Enobaria smirked, causing Johanna to growl again, "Don't look so smug, we'll kill you anyway."

"Sit down please Katniss." Coin shut the door, ignoring Johanna and Enobaria's banter, "I've asked you here to settle a debate. Today we will execute Snow. In previous weeks, hundreds of his accomplices in the oppression of Panem have been tried and now await their own deaths. However, the suffering in the districts have been so extreme that these measures appear insufficient to the victims. In fact, many are calling for a complete annihilation of those who held Capitol citizenship. However, in the interest of maintaining a sustainable population, we cannot afford this.

"So, an alternative has been placed on the table. Since my colleagues and I can come to no consensus, it has been agreed that we will let the victors decide. A majority of four will approve the plan. No one may abstain from the vote. What has been proposed is that in lieu of eliminating the entire Capitol population, we have a final, symbolic Hunger Games, using the children directly related to those who held the most power."

"What?" Johanna and Calla spoke at the same time. Calla sounded more outraged than curious as Johanna had.

Coin doesn't seem surprised, "We hold another Hunger Games using Capitol children."

"Are you joking?" Peeta asked, sounding almost as outraged at Calla as they both yelled at the woman.

"No." Was the simple answer, "I should also tell you that if we do hold the Games, it will be known it was done with your approval, although the individual breakdown of your votes will be kept secret for your own security."

"Was this Plutarch's idea?" Haymitch spoke up, leaning forward a little on the table.

Calla looked at him, the annoyance and unbelieving expression clearly showing.

"No, it was mine. It seemed to balance the need for vengeance with the least loss of life. You may cast your votes."

Calla shook her head again, looking down at our intertwined hands and mumbled, "Figures."

I had to agree with her. Coin had never had to deal with going into the Games…or having to put children through the Games. This woman didn't understand what it was like.

"No!" Peeta yelled, "I vote no of course! We can't have another Hunger Games!"

Johanna shrugged, "Why not? It seems very fair to me. Snow even has a granddaughter. I vote yes."

Snow did have a granddaughter…I thought back to one of the many times I had 'worked' with Selena Snow…that girl probably wouldn't last a minute, but she was also a relative of Snow, they were a sneaky family.

"So do I. Let them have a taste of their own medicine." Enobaria, surprisingly, agreed with Johanna…which probably shouldn't have been such a surprise actually, Enobaria was a sadist.

"This is why we rebelled! Remember?" Peeta looked around the room, trying to find someone to back him up, "Annie?"

I looked over at Annie, watching as she shook her head, "I vote no, with Peeta."

"No, it would set a bad precedent. We have to stop viewing one another as enemies. At this point unity is essential to our survival. No."

Calla sighed and glared up at Coin, her disgust at the woman evident, "I vote no. We shouldn't subject anyone else to what we were forcibly put through. You don't know what it's like to have to kill people your age and younger…no one should have to know what that's like."

"I agree with Callie. No." I said, squeezing her hand again as she smiled over at me.

Coin ignored Calla's glare, "It's down to Katniss and Haymitch."

"I vote yes…for Prim." Katniss looked at the rose she had brought with her as she answered.

"Haymitch, it's up to you."

Calla looked over at her father, and he looked back for a moment, "I'm with the Mockingjay."

"Excellent. That carries the vote." Coin went to continue, but Calla, shoved her chair back and it fell to the floor with a loud bang as she stalked out of the room, surprising everyone as she slammed the door closed behind her with a loud bang.

* * *

"Callie, come on." I knocked on the door to our room again, leaning against the frame.

She had locked herself in our room, something that had only happened once before after she'd had a panic attack in 13. I was worried, the last panic attack had ended in someone having to sedate her and I didn't want that to happen again.

"Callie." I knocked again, surprised when she door opened this time.

"What?"

I sighed, "We have to go; Coin expects us to be there. And after that, you and I can go explore or something."

She thought for a moment, torn between wanting to see Snow die and not wanting to be near the people that were about to allow one last Games. Seeing Snow die seemed to win out because she stepped out of the room, moving some hair from her eyes. I grabbed her hand, pulling her to me like I had this morning when she woke me up from my nightmare.

"It's going to be the last one." I pressed my forehead to hers as I spoke and then caught her lips with mine before she could retort.

"I love you."

Calla gave me a small smile, "I love you too."


	19. Chapter 19

**Callalilly – Age 24**

"Happy birthday Callie." I looked over at Finnick as he walked into the house, dripping wet from swimming.

I'd been staying with him in Four since they sent Katniss back to District 12 due to an 'unstable mental condition'. I knew why she'd killed Coin instead of Snow, Coin had allowed the attacks on those kids in the square…she'd killed Katniss' little sister. It was sickening, and I probably would have done the exact same thing.

"Thanks Finn." I smiled

He walked into the bathroom, coming out with a towel and drying himself off before walking over and pulling me into him. We kissed for a moment and I pulled back first with a sigh.

"I think I should probably go home for the day." I paused surprised as Finnick smiled, "I may be angry at my Dad about his decision…but I haven't spent a birthday without him."

"Thank God. I thought that I was going to have to kidnap you or something. He already knows we're coming."

Smiling at him, I hit him softly in the chest, "What if I said I didn't want to go?"

"As I said, I was going to kidnap you." He laughed, "You know better than anyone that I'm good at that."

"Watch yourself Odair." We smiled as each other and kissed one more time before I went to take a shower.

* * *

"Hey Dad." I gave him a small smile and hugged him. Though I was still angry with his decision, it was nice to see him; Haymitch was still my Dad, he was my only family…I couldn't be angry at him forever.

"I've missed you Callie."

I put my face in his shoulder and smiled, smelling alcohol on his clothing. That was nothing new though, I couldn't remember a time that he didn't smell like booze. It was a familiar scent and I had found myself missing it slightly in District 4...it reminded me of Chaff when I would hang out with both of them during the Games in the mentor room.

"I missed you too, Dad." We pulled apart and then Finnick grabbed my hand as my Dad and I led him out of the train station. Finnick had only been to Twelve for his Victory Tour, but he hadn't been back since, in all the years that I had been escaping to Four, he had never come here. I knew that it wouldn't be the same as it used to be; apparently they were using the land for farming now, there was minimal mining anymore, and that was only to help the other districts out.

We piled into a car; I sat in the middle between my dad and Finnick looking out the windows at the place I hadn't seen since before the third Quarter Quell, since Snow had blown the place up.

"Katniss and Peeta are slowly mending their relationship."

I smiled, "Saw that one coming."

"What, you weren't routing for Gale?" My dad laughed and I shrugged.

"Gale and Katniss are too similar to make it as a couple."

* * *

"So this is Twelve?" Finnick and I walked around looking at the aftermath of the bombs.

The fence was currently gone, so I grabbed Finnick's hand and walked through what used to be a clearing, but was now a crater. I looked around, surprised, before heading toward the forest where Sterling and I, and eventually Gale and Katniss, went hunting. Sterling to take care of his family and me to get away from the town and my dad for a while.

"You should have seen this place before." I spoke, looking over my shoulder for a moment back at the crater.

Finnick smiled beside me as I led him through the forest, knowing the trails like the back of my hand. I stopped in the middle, not going very far, and sat down on one of the large rocks that overlooked a small stream.

"My dad used to tell me about all the times that he took my mom here." I spoke, looking around.

It was quiet, something that I didn't like normally, quiet meant trouble…it could mean someone was trying to come and slit your throat when your guard was down.

Finnick sat down beside me, "Yeah?"

"Yeah. They both lived in the Seam and she didn't know much about hunting or anything, she had like three older brothers that did that for her. But, she started coming out after one of them got sick and the other two had to start working in the mines. And, on her fourth time, or something like that, she got really lost and my dad found her while he was out hunting. He'd been back from the Games for less than a week and he just wanted to get out of the house for a while or something.

"Anyway, he found her in the middle of the forest and she was bawling her eyes out or something because she didn't think she would be able to find her way home and my dad stopped and called her stupid or something. Which is definitely the type of thing he would do. And eventually he led her back to the trail and walked her home, after that though they would start meeting at the fence and going out together and finally they started telling people they were a couple and all that." I laughed, looking over at Finnick, "And then after two weeks of being away from the Games and the Capitol killed his mom and little brother and he sort of became a recluse for a while there.

"So, finally, after about a year of this, my mom goes to his house and demands to see him. Apparently she was yelling at him and all this other stuff. Demanding to know why he would just start ignoring her and leaving her to go into the forest all alone. She like smacked him or something and brought him back to his senses and he started taking her out to hunt again. So, they finally moved in with each other when they were eighteen and then two years later my mom decided that she wanted to have a kid. According to him, he was apprehensive about it, not that I really blame him. But she won out, and she was pregnant with me. Her oldest brother wasn't happy about it, wouldn't talk to her for months after he found out. And then, Snow told him that he had to work for him…of course, my dad told him no and after I was born my mom and two of her brothers were shot while they were walking around the Seam."

Finnick grabbed my hand again, letting me talk about something that I didn't normally talk about. I never really told him much about my mom, but something about him being in Twelve with me just made me spill everything to him.

"What happened to her other brother?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. He refused to even see me. My dad said that her brother never really liked him…and after his sister died, he was really vindictive and angry and so he didn't really go out of his way to meet me. When I was about seven I found out where he lived and walked there without my dad and he slammed the door in my face."

"Sounds like an ass."

"No, he lost everyone he cared about because of my dad. But, when I told him, my dad got really mad and went to his house to yell at him."

Finnick laughed, "Classic Haymitch."

I joined him, the two of us disrupting the serenely, quiet, forest.

* * *

"So you're raising geese now?" I looked over at my dad and laughing looking at the birds as they roamed around in the cage he'd built for them.

He leaned against the cage and shrugged, "They're easier to raise than you were."

"Thanks dad." We laughed and I backed up as one of the geese hissed at me, "You're birds are just like you, slightly evil, and cranky all the time."

"I'm not cranky all the time."

I quirked an eyebrow at him, "Fine, just most of the time."

"I'll give you that one."

I backed farther away from the geese, surprised by the amount of hissing that they were doing at me, "What is up with these things?"

"They're like watch dogs."

"Satan's birds." I mumbled shaking my head at them.

My dad laughed at me, "No they're not."

"Any bird that hisses at you is not a good bird. Hell, any bird that looked at you with those kind of eyes are evil."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're birds have these beady little eyes that glare into your soul or something."

"Are you going morphling?"

"Yes."

We laughed at each other, falling back into the rhythm that we'd had when I was a teenager. It felt nice to be in Twelve again, although I would continue living with Finnick in Four. I loved the ocean too much to have to come back here.

"So, when's he going to pop the question, huh?"

I looked over at my dad as he took a large swig of his beer, "What're you talking about?"

"You and Finnick have been living together for a year…and you've been on the verge of dating since you won your Games. Which means that this whole thing has been going on for seven years…when are you two just going to get over it and get married?"

Snorting, I rolled my eyes at him, "I don't know, and that's none of your business."

"You're my little girl, it's definitely my business."

"I'm not little."

"Well, you could have fooled me." I looked behind me to see Finnick approaching, a large smile on his face as I glared at him.

"Shut up."

* * *

"Be safe over there. Don't drown or anything."

I hugged my dad goodbye, and laughed as he spoke, "I'll see you in a couple of weeks, okay dad? Don't let your birds kill anyone while I'm gone."

"I'm not going to promise anything."

Laughing, I turned to Peeta and Katniss, "Make sure he stays out of trouble, alright?"

"Don't worry, we'll keep him busy."

"Thanks you guys."

Finnick and I boarded the train, leaving behind my family in Twelve as we left to go home. I leaned into Finnick's side as the train took off to take us back to Four and smiled as he started playing with my hair. I was still debating on whether or not to grow it out again, in the end, I knew I would grow it back out though, sometimes looking in the mirror just reminded me of everything Finnick and my family had been through. It would nice to have one less thing remind me of what had happened only a year ago.

"I'm going to have to start visiting more." I sighed and looked up into the sea green eyes that belonged to Finnick. He ran his hand through my hair again and smiled down at me.

"We should start visiting more. Peeta and Katniss said that they were going to start a book about everything that happened or something. I think you and I could help them out with a few things."

I nodded, "Yeah that could be fun."

We fell silent for a moment, leaning into each other. I let the noise of the train lull me close to sleep before Finnick spoke again, "What were you and your dad talking about before I walked up?"

"He asked me when we were going to get married." I laughed, "He said that seven years had been long enough and that we should suck it up and just hitch up already."

Finnick snorted, "It hasn't been seven years."

"He said that it's been destined to happen since I was seventeen."

"Only Haymitch." He shook his head in disbelief for a moment, "Although, maybe we should consider it…"

I looked at Finnick as he turned his attention out the window, "What're you talking about Finn?"

"Well, he's right. It has been seven years."

"You've lost me…completely."

He laughed, "When your name got called for the Games and I kissed you that day you rode on the chariots, I knew that I should have said something earlier, but I didn't know until then that I should do that before then. And then, with everything that happened before the Quarter Quell…I don't know I just didn't say anything because, well, we both had things we had to sort out. I mean we both were working for Snow and we were both dealing with our own problems so I pushed the thought of…being together away because one of us was going to end up getting hurt if we did that. And then during the Quell when Mags died, I finally realized that I didn't care because we could die at any minute…turns out that almost happened though, when Snow got you, Peeta, and Johanna, I didn't know what to do and I kept thinking that I should have just said something after your Games when I had the chance.

"And now, well, we have the chance to finally be happy without having to deal with Snow or clients, or anything like that. Maybe we should start thinking about not worrying that something bad is going to happen again."

I smiled at him and sat up, "We should've just told each other. Things might have been easier."

"We'll never know either way. So we should just work on focusing on the future."

We looked at each other for another moment before I leaned my head on his chest again, "I love you Finn."

"I love you too Callie." He kissed the top of my head and started playing with my hair again.


	20. Chapter 20

**Finnick – Age 26**

"So…I'm going to ask her." I looked over at Haymitch as he took a large swig of his drink.

We'd been coming back to Twelve a lot recently, due to Calla getting a bit homesick at times. I didn't mind though, I loved seeing her this way, running around in the snow with some of the kids and throwing snowballs with them.

Haymitch laughed from beside me, "Finally."

"Yeah, I don't know how I'm going to ask yet, but…I think that, now that we know everything is going to be slightly okay, everything will work out."

Calla threw a snowball at one of the kids, hitting the little boy in the chest and then ducking as the group ganged up on her. Five of them hit her, the rest missing as she tried to evade them all. Her laugh echoed through the town and I smiled at the sound. Hearing her laugh had to be one of my favorite things about her, aside from those gray eyes of course.

"Just keep her safe alright. I don't want to have to come to your house and kill you."

It was my turn to laugh now, "Don't worry about that."

I knew that he was serious, though Haymitch's family had grown from two all the way to at least five people; Calla was one of the only people that had been with him for the longest. He'd raised her after Snow had killed his wife when most people would have just sent the kid to an orphanage. She was _the _most important person in his life.

"I'm serious."

I nodded, "I know."

"Good." Haymitch took another swig of beer, "When I asked her mother the first time, she told me no."

Surprised, I took my eyes off Calla's snowball war and looked at her father. He'd never spoken to me about his life before, "Why?"

"Apparently because I asked her to casually. We were eating dinner and I just asked her." He shook his head, "So, when she said no, I thought she meant it seriously, like she didn't actually want to marry me. I didn't know what to do and so I sort of just stared at her from across the table like I'd been hit or something. After a moment or two though she started laughing, in fact she almost fell out of her chair, and she told me that I needed to ask her again...and to do it romantically or something. I didn't even know how to be romantic, I figured you just asked."

"But it eventually worked out though?"

He nodded, "A month later I took her out to the woods and asked her."

"Calla was telling me that you and her mom used to go out there."

"We did. I started taking Calla out there when she was seven and her first time I let go of her hand and she somehow got lost."

I laughed again, thinking of a seven year old Calla getting lost in the woods. When she'd taken me that first time, she knew that place so well that it was like she wasn't even watching where we were going. I could just imagine Calla at seven losing Haymitch and just walking wherever she thought he would be.

"She ended up at this lake in the middle of the forest," Haymitch continued, "and she was just sitting there with her feet in the water, acting like nothing was wrong."

I smiled, "Really?"

"Yeah, scared me to death. I didn't know what to do." Haymitch shook his head with a smile.

It surprised me, seeing this version of Haymitch. Calla had talked about him being like this sometimes, but I'd never witnessed it firsthand. When he talked about Calla, he seemed to become some type of different person. He seemed almost…human.

"Calla has a knack for scaring the shit out of people."

"She got that from her mother."

* * *

"Come on." Calla grabbed my hand, trying to drag me outside as it began snowing.

I laughed at her attempts, using my other hand to grab the door frame before she succeeded, "What're you doing?"

"It's snowing, I want to play in the snow."

"What are you twelve?"

Calla made a face at me, "No, but I love the snow and you said that you've never really seen it before."

"I can see it through the window. It's cold out there, plus it's dark outside, we're not even going to be able to see what we're doing."

"Please?" She stopped tugging on my hand, looking up at me through her eyelashes. I sighed, knowing I couldn't really say no to her with the look she was giving me and grabbed my coat from where it was hanging just inside the door,

"So, besides snowball fights, what exactly do you do in the snow?"

Calla sent me a triumphant smile and grabbed my hand again as I threw my coat on, "Well, you can make snow angels or build snowmen."

"As I said before…what are you twelve?"

"Yes. Now make a snow angel with me." She fell on her back on the ground, moving her arms and legs before standing up and looking at her handy work.

"That doesn't look like an angel at all."

She glared at me, walking toward me with a dangerous smile on her face. Backing away, I kept my eyes on her, unsure about what she was going to do until she pounced at me. I caught her without thinking, surprised when I slipped on some ice and fell back into the snow.

We stayed like the for a moment, the sky above us dark as we laid in the snow. I didn't move even as I felt the snow melting into my clothes. Calla was beautiful in this environment, the moon was shinning and illuminating every flake of snow as it fell in her hair. She'd grown it out, it was still shorter than what it had been, but it was close to its normal length…the flakes falling in it made it look like she'd sewn pearls into her hair.

I kissed her, closing my eyes as I tangled a hand in her hair and wrapped my other one tightly around her waist.

"Marry me." We pulled apart and looked up at her, catching her gray eyes with mine.

Her brow scrunched up in confusion, "What?"

"Marry me."

Calla smiled, "Of course."

* * *

"I forgot to give you this last night."

Calla looked at me from the table where she sat drinking her coffee with Haymitch as I entered, "Huh?"

I held out the ring, grabbing her left hand from the mug and slid the ring onto her ring finger. Inspecting it for a moment, I smiled. Haymitch raised an eyebrow at us, "So you found a way to ask her? That was quick."

"It was more spontaneous than I would like to admit."

Calla laughed, "I dragged him out to make snow angels."

"What are you twelve?"

"That's what I asked her." I smirked over at Calla as she made a face at Haymitch and me.

"For your information," she began indignantly, "I love the snow…and snow is for snow angels."

Haymitch shook his head at her, "Sometimes I wonder where I went wrong."

"Shut up."


	21. Chapter 21

**Callalilly – Age 17**

_"Let the 69__th__ Hunger Games begin!" _Seneca Crane's voice broke through the silence as everyone arrived at the top of their chutes.

**One**

I started counting, knowing that it would help calm me down before I stepped off the platform and tried to get a backpack.

**Two**

I looked around the arena, seeing a jungle. The word rainforest popped into my head for a moment, but I couldn't exactly be sure. It wasn't currently raining, but I knew enough about the Games to know that when the Gamemakers wanted it, there would be enough rain to drown someone.

**Three**

Kids were slipping as they tried to make their way to the Cornucopia, two of them fell down…the rest used the slippery grass to their advantage. I made a mental note to do the same.

**Four**

My mind ran to my dad and Finnick for a moment, knowing that they were probably watching, trying to figure out what the hell I was doing. Truthfully…I didn't know what I was doing myself.

**Five**

I thought of Finnick's lips on mine after the parade at the beginning, when they introduced the tributes to the Capitol. He wasn't happy about me being painted black, neither was my dad, but I knew the real reason behind it. Snow had given the richer people of the Capitol a preview of what might come if I won, which was highly unlikely.

**Six**

I ran the plan through my head one more time. Avoid the Cornucopia, try to get a backpack, and last, but not least, find some type of water source. If I didn't find any good water then I was certainly screwed and I definitely would _not _make it past the first two days when the weaker tributes always died.

**Seven**

Find water. This place looked like one of the rainforests I'd seen in pictures, but I knew better than to trust any sort of water that came out of a sky that was controlled by Gamemakers. The last time someone had done that…they'd had a seizure. I didn't want to go out because of some stupid reason like that.

**Eight**

The eighteen year old boy was already at the Cornucopia, slaughtering people as they approached, two people ran off toward the forest, knowing better than to try and attack him. They left backpacks, and I couldn't understand why. They needed some type of supplies, what did they think they would find in there.

**Nine**

I took a deep breath, readying myself to run toward one of the backpacks that was left toward the right. From what I saw, no one had gone that way…it seemed like the best bet at the moment.

**Ten**

I kicked off the platform, skidding across the grass, and grabbing a bag, throwing one of the straps around my shoulders and going to the right of the Cornucopia, narrowly missing someone's knife as it was hurled at me.

The jungle was dark and I didn't stop running until I could no longer hear anything from the clearing where the giant Cornucopia sat. Finally, when I could no longer hear it, I slowed to a brisk walk, looking around until I felt comfortable enough to stop and check out what was in the bag I'd grabbed. Opening it, I found an empty canteen, a small knife, a box of matches, and a sleeping bag. I was surprised, usually this type of thing wasn't very far away from the Cornucopia, but I was thankful all the same.

"Alright." I nodded and packed everything back up and began looking around for water.

* * *

_Day two_. I thought, packing everything up and trekking back to the small pond I'd found to fill my canteen again.

Ten teenagers had died last night. Both from Eleven were gone, I was pretty sure that they had died at the Cornucopia. Mitchell was dead too, I didn't know how he'd died, and I also didn't really know who he was…but it was sad that he had died, he had been the last connection I currently had left to District 12.

I sighed, taking a quick swig from the canteen before filling it up again and shoving it back into the backpack. Back in the mentor room, the Career mentors were probably taking bets, with the exception of Finnick and Mags, Chaff was probably drunk and my dad, if this was a normal Games would have been drinking with him. I could see everything in the mentor room clearly, having been in there every year since I was born had imprinted the schedules of everyone in there. I missed the room…missed being a little kid again when I would fall asleep in Chaff's or my dad's laps.

I threw these thoughts out of my mind, shaking my head to really get them out. Today was going to be a long, I could just feel it.

Standing up, I headed away from the pond and continued walking along, hoping someone would take out the careers for me. I didn't want to kill anyone…but I knew that I would if I had to.

"Well, well, well…look what we have here."

I flew around, gripping the knife in my hand tighter as I looked at the eighteen year old male from District 9, my eyes wide as I took him in. He was huge and from what I'd seen at the training center he was good with most of the weapons, especially with the large knife that he was wielding currently. I had hoped that I would make it to at the least the final eight.

So much for winning for Finnick…

"I'm surprised, you know, considering that you're the infamous Haymitch Abernathy's kid…I sort of expected a little more. I mean, he won the second quarter quell."

He stalked forward and I retreated away from him, gripping so tightly at the knife in my hand that my knuckles were white.

"I expected a less cocky eighteen year old"

He laughed, "Why? You know just as well as I do that I'm going to win."

"You're hopeful."

"I'm the oldest one here, there's no way I'll die."

I raised an eyebrow, not lowering my guard during our chat, "You obviously don't pay much attention to the Games do you? Four years ago, a fourteen year old from District 4 killed two eighteen year olds after they killed his district partner…he went on to win."

"Yeah but Finnick Odair's a bit of a whore don't you think?"

My eyes narrowed in anger but I bit my tongue, knowing better than to say anything as the District 9 male stalked closer, a large and malicious smile on his face.

"No retort?"

"I don't see the need to talk to you. I mean…you seem so sure of yourself."

He laughed, "Of course."

Taking one more step, he stopped wasting time and lunged forward with his knife. I narrowly avoided it, cutting his arm with my knife. He glared at me and lunged again as I blocked his knife with mine. I was strong, and Sterling and I had been sparring with knives for a long time, I knew a little bit about holding someone stronger than me off.

The eighteen year old took another step toward me, his smile growing, "You're a lot more fun than I thought you would be."

"I'm glad you're enjoying it."

I backed up one more time, hoping that we were close to the large snare that I'd set up last night. If I looked behind me to find out he would probably realizing what I was doing, trying to distract and trap him like he was some animal. However, he currently reminded me of an animal with how he was walking…maybe the snare I'd set was perfect.

Taking one more step back I saw the snare finally and turned so that the eighteen year old would walk straight into it. He didn't seem to be able to see it, not that he seemed particularly observant, but maybe I was going to have a small bit of luck. He took another step forward and I took another step back meeting with a tree. He smiled, thinking that he had the upper hand until he took one more step forward and the snare caught on his ankle.

"What the-"

He hung upside down his knife falling from his hand. I picked the knife up; not wanting to do what I knew was supposed to come now.

"You think you're clever Twelve?"

I glared at him, "Yeah, I suppose I do."

"You know it's only a matter of time before the Careers come after you." He was trying to get under my skin and I made my expression one of indifference as I tried to decide whether to leave him hanging here or not.

I went to turn around and leave him there when he spoke once more, "I can't wait until your dad has to watch you die. It's too bad that I can't be a fly on the wall for that because we all know that he's going to fly off the handle."

"Shut up."

He smiled again, "Maybe he'll die too. Wouldn't that be tragic? The whole Abernathy family just wiped out."

I threw the knife at him before I could think, to angry to do anything else. He was right…and I didn't like it. The knife lodged itself deep into his neck and the canon went off a moment later. My eyes widened and I took the knife from his neck and cut him down before running away before the hovercraft could come and take his body away. I couldn't believe that I'd just killed someone…especially the eighteen year old. At the same time, I knew he was asking for it, he had been trying to get me to do it. But he was right though, when I did my dad would freak out and they might kill him too because he probably wouldn't do what they told him to.

* * *

I leaned my head back against the tree I was in, wanting to just give up. It was sad that only three days had passed and I'd already resorted to killing someone. I had never thought that I would be a killer…even in self defense. I wasn't cut out for these Games.

Looking down, I bit my lip, wondering if I was high enough off the ground to do anything other than break a few bones. There was only one way to find out…

A parachute fell down before I could do anything else. I grabbed it, opening the contents and finding a loaf of green, fish shaped, bread; it was from Four and as I pulled out a slip of paper, I knew exactly who had sent it to me. I smiled reading the words on the paper before pulling out the bread and ripping a small piece of it off. The bread was salty, and tasted like some type of grass or something, I couldn't tell exactly what it was…but, it didn't really matter to me right now, food was food, and the bread tasted pretty good anyway.

I bit my lip and closed the container, packing my things back into the backpack and climbed down the tree, jumping when I could without hurting myself. Angling back, toward the pond, I planned on refilling my water container. I was going to win for my dad and Finnick…I knew I could do it now though, I was going to win.


	22. Chapter 22

**Finnick – Age 26**

"We need to discuss where the ceremony is going to take place."

Calla sighed from beside me, bored with this whole thing after we just sat down. Plutarch wanted to televise our wedding, which seemed pointless to me…but because of that, he had hired one of the best wedding coordinators from the Capitol. We'd explained to him already that we didn't want anything all that bright or…Capitol-like, but I don't think he really understood that.

"Um…" Calla bit her lip and looked over at me, "We haven't exactly decided that really."

I shrugged at her look, "I don't really care."

"That's not helpful." She made a small face at me and I sent her a smile as she turned back to Johnathan, "I suppose we'll do it in Four. I want to do it on the beach though…outside."

Johnathan wrote it down, "If it starts to storm?"

"They can bring umbrellas just in case." Calla shrugged and I laughed, covering it up with a cough as we were both glared at.

"This is a serious matter. Have the two of you not thought about any of this?"

"No."

Johnathan shook his head, "Well, you should start thinking about it. Do you have any themes or colors in mind?"

"Gray and sea-green." I answered quickly.

Calla looked at me, an eyebrow raised, "Maybe I wanted black and white."

"Did you want black and white?" I knew the answer already; she was just giving this guy a hard time because she didn't want anything big and Plutarch was sort of forcing us to have some extravagant thing. After all we'd gone through in the Capitol, both of us sort of wanted to be left alone.

"No."

I laughed, "Okay then."

"Music?" Johnathan continued with a sigh.

I was going to let Calla have that one, she was the music person here, "Well, since I'm from Twelve and Finn is from Four I think we should have a mix of both, you know? Like maybe alternate between the two styles of music."

"Alright, I can work with that. Do you have anything in mind for flowers?"

Calla shrugged, "Um…I don't know. Lilies, seashells…something that incorporated both of our districts."

"How many people will you be inviting?"

Calla and I looked at each other, she had the most family and the most friends…Mags was one of the few people I had that still liked me and she had died in the Quarter Quell.

"Um…well. At least five?" Calla spoke again, I was fine with her answering, I wasn't sure about it myself.

"Only five? That won't be good for publicity; we'll invite some of the townspeople."

She bit her lip, "A lot of the people close to us were killed either before or during the war."

"Oh…well." Johnathan seemed at a loss for words, "We'll be meeting tomorrow for cake flavors and decorations. It was nice meeting the two of you."

Calla and I stood up, shaking hands with the man and walking him to the door as he left.

"This is going to be a long couple of weeks." Calla sighed beside me and I laughed, putting my arm around her shoulders.

"Maybe we should just go elope."

She shook her head, "My dad would kill us."

* * *

"Callie, wake up."

She turned in the bed, clutching one of the blankets tighter to her chest as she slept in a small ball.

"Callie." I poked her rib through the blanket, causing her to jump from surprise.

Calla sat up, looking at me surprised, "What the hell?"

"We're going swimming, let's go." I grabbed her hand and led her out the bedroom door, immediately coming into contact with sand.

"I'm in my nightclothes." I gave her a look and a coy smile, seeing her get the hint as her eyes widened, "Oh."

We walked onto the beach and I let go of her hand, standing in front of her as I pulled her nightshirt off and threw it in the sand beside her. I'd never actually seen her naked (or slightly naked as she was now) before, unless you counted the time before her Games when she had been painted black, which I didn't, and considering everything we'd been through and how we'd met up at that apartment dressed seemed strange, but every time we changed or anything she went to the bathroom. I knew why she did it though. Calla was afraid to be naked in front of anyone due to the fact that every time she had been naked before, all those years ago, it seemed to end in something that wasn't as sacred as she wanted it to be. Plus, Calla was self conscious, even though there were plenty of clients that had paid for her services and had even asked for her more than once, all of the gossip magazines in the Capitol had always commented about how there was something wrong with her looks.

…She was too plain for some of the people in the Capitol.

I pulled my shirt off as well, throwing it to Calla's.

She pulled off her pants, standing there half naked as I did the same and grabbed her hand, walking with her to the water. It was one in the morning and the moon was shinning on the water, sending reflections over the back of our house as we stepped into the waves, walking until we had to swim to stay above the water.

Calla dunked her head under, taking a deep breath as she wet her hair. I held her hand as she went under. In Thirteen, and even for a while here, Calla had had problems with water, however, she'd had a good reason. When peacekeepers throw you into a pool and then electrocute you while you're in it, it sort of screws with your love of water.

Calla came back up for some air and then smiled at me, going under again and pulling me with her. We looked at each other under the water and I pulled her to me, pressing my lips against hers through the water before kicking us up to the surface as we pulled apart for air.

She kissed me again, and I wrapped a hand around her waist, the other one snaking into her hair. It was hard to believe that this whole thing could have ended so quickly only two years ago when those lizard mutts had attacked me.

"I love you Callie…I just want you to know that."

Calla blushed and leaned her forehead on mine, "I love you too, Finn."

I smiled at her kissing her one more time before we swam back to the shore and walked into the house, leaving out clothing on the beach as we walked back inside.


	23. Chapter 23

**Callalilly – Age 22**

"What the hell is this?" I stomped into the apartment, not bothering to knock as I normally would have, slamming the door angrily.

"What's wrong?" Finnick stood up and walked over to me, noticing the tabloid magazine in my hand, "You know, you really shouldn't read those."

I shook my head, knowing he was right, "I didn't exactly read it, I just saw the front page."

"What're you talking about?" Finnick laughed and I brought up the tabloid, shoving it in his face angrily. He stopped laughing, "What?"

"Apparently, we're 'Friends with Benefits'. You know, because we're whores of the Capitol and everything, of course we're whoring around with each other."

He looked at the page and then backed up at me, laughing, "Relax Calla."

"No, this could piss Snow off."

Finnick's laughing stopped, "He would have done something already."

"Are you sure? Or do you think that he'd wait until we're both back home?"

* * *

"Get up!" I snuggled closer to Finnick as someone shouted, figuring that the District 4 male was having another nightmare, "Let's go."

The feeling of someone roughly grabbing my arm and pulling from the bed made me open my eyes, meeting Finnick's as the peacekeepers did the same to him. They pushed me out of the room first, forcing me to go out the hallway in nothing but one of Finnick's shirts as they pushed me out of the building and into a car.

"What do you think you're doing?" I yelled as they pushed me into the car, trying to fight back against one of the peacekeepers. He won out though and roughly pushed me inside, closing the door behind him as he climbed inside the car beside me.

"Snow wants to talk to you."

"He couldn't have done it with me clothed?"

"Shut up."

I heard the gun click and looked at it, shrinking into the door as the black car sped toward Snow's mansion.

* * *

"Can the two of you explain what the meaning of this is?" Snow placed the magazine in front of Finnick and me, looking between us as he waited for an answer.

Finnick's knuckles were white as he clutched at the arm of the chair he sat in, he'd arrived after me only ten minutes later, shirtless and wearing only his boxers, just as equally confused as I was. Until now that was. I looked down at the magazine, showing the cover picture of Finnick and me sitting at dinner that night he'd come to my apartment freaked out.

Snow was angry about the two winners of the Games, they would be crowned as soon as Peeta was out of the hospital and used to his new leg, and Snow couldn't punish them…so he was going to go for the next best thing.

No one spoke; Finnick and I both knew that lying to him would just be stupid; he'd probably already spoken to everyone that had been at the restaurant that night. He knew we'd gone together.

"W-well, what do you mean President Snow?" I broke the silence finally, gaining Snow's full attention now.

The President sent me a malicious smile and stood up; walking around his desk and the two chairs that Finnick and I were residing in with his hands behind his back. "Calla, let's not beat around the bush, shall we? Now, your clients don't want your baggage…I don't think that either of you need to know what might happen if this whole thing continues." He paused and stopped, leaning down beside me, making me cough from the sudden, overwhelming smell coming from him, "And District 12 can't afford to lose their oldest mentor, can they?"

I looked over at Snow, glaring at him as he spoke. I couldn't believe that after everything he had done, that he was threatening my dad.

"Do you understand me, Calla?"

It took me a moment, but finally, after looking into his snake-like eyes, I nodded, trying not to gag at the overwhelming smell that was emitting from him.

"I couldn't hear you."

"I understand."

He smiled and stood up, "Good. Now get out of my office. Both of you have clients to entertain tonight."

"It's three in the morning." I stood up from the chair, looking once more into the snake-like eyes of Snow with a renewed courage.

His smile fell off of his face and he looked dangerous for a moment, "And you have clients that have requested you. I suggest you go entertain."

I shot him another glare before walking with Finnick out of the room, shutting the doors to Snow's office behind us. We looked at each other for a moment, communicating without words as the peacekeepers 'escorted' us separately down the stairs where two cars were waiting.

Pushing me toward one of the cars, I saw the driver and a passenger inside as I entered the backseat, throwing on my normal Capitol personality as I saw from the corner of my eye as Finnick entered the front passenger side seat of the car behind mine.

* * *

I looked on either side of me, seeing both men asleep as I looked up at the ceiling. This was my first time being with two men at once, I'd been with a man and a woman before…but this was different. This was Snow inadvertently punishing my dad for allowing Katniss and her 'Star Crossed Lover' Peeta pull that stunt in the arena.

Taking a deep breath, I contemplated taking my chances of squeezing out of the bed, risking waking one of them up when the one on my right turned, wrapping his arm around me tightly and pulled me against him in his sleep, mumbling something about someone named Verona.

My thoughts ran to Finnick and I immediately threw him from my mind, reminding myself that Snow had threatened my dad. I wasn't going to lose my dad because of Finnick and I being unable to not leave each other alone for a while. Until things calmed down with this whole nightlock thing…Finnick and I were going to have to be careful.

I hated what Snow was doing.

I hated what Snow had made me.

I hated that Snow was forcing Finnick and me apart because he was mad at a sixteen year old girl that couldn't deal with the guilt of killing someone from her District.


	24. Chapter 24

**Finnick – Age 26**

"Really?" I laughed as Calla's face grew red, "You seriously did that?"

We were laying in bed, listening to the sounds of the storm that was raging outside. Neither of us could sleep, both enjoying the sounds of thunder mixing with the large waves. Telling each other stories about our lives before the war had ended everything, saying things that we'd never told anyone, let alone each other.

"Tell me something else." I spoke as lightning illuminated the world outside, causing light to come in through the shutters that were covering the windows.

"Um," A clap of thunder sounded, "I hate the color orange."

I laughed again, "The color orange?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

A nervous giggle sounded from her and I pulled her closer to me on the bed, our foreheads and lips touching. I'd never been this intimate with someone, especially in a bed before. We weren't kissing, just letting out lips touch as Calla spoke again, her lips moving against mine.

"I don't know…it's an obnoxious color. And seeing Caesar Flickerman with orange hair was like some bad horror film where the killer sports some unnatural birth defect or something."

I laughed again, "A birth defect?"

"Yeah…like that Freddy Kruger guy."

"I think he was burned alive and that's why he looked like that."

She bit her lip for a moment and her forehead scrunched up as she thought, "Oh, well…still. It was creepy."

"That is a completely ridiculous reason."

She made a noise of outrage in the back of her throat, "You're completely ridiculous."

We laughed and I grabbed her lips with mine, feeling as she grabbed a fistful of my shirt and moved even closer.

* * *

"Do we really have to do this?" Calla snuggled up to me on the couch as I turned the TV on, putting on Plutarch's new singing competition on as we settled in for the night.

It had been a long day with Johnathan, picking out wedding invitation envelopes and paper for the invitations…it was a lot more than I thought was needed to have a wedding. Calla and I would have been just fine doing something small with only a few people there. It didn't seem fair that we weren't going to be allowed a small, quiet wedding; everything in our lives had been complicated, why couldn't we just have something simple?

"Do what?"

"Why don't we just secretly run off to Twelve and invite the people we want to come and have a simple little wedding or something."

I smiled, wanting to agree with her, "I'm not sure Plutarch would be very happy about that."

"He wouldn't know."

Laughing, I slung my arm around her shoulders, "I'm sure Haymitch would agree, but I don't think that's a smart idea."

Calla scowled, "I know…but I don't want to do this thing."

"I don't either." I sighed, "What if I promise you to do that toasting thing or whatever afterwards?"

She laughed, one of her eyebrows quirked as she looked at me like I was stupid, "You mean that you'll agree to let some of the District 12 people sing as we make our first fire in the house as a married couple, toast bread, and share it?"

"Sure." I shrugged and she rolled her eyes at me, "I mean it."

Calla didn't seem convinced and she laughed again, "Whatever."

"I will, I promise."

She sighed and laid her head on my chest, "I'll hold you up to that."

"I know you will."

* * *

"So…what do you think about having kids after this whole thing?" I wasn't sure why I asked the question, but, walking on the beach, hand in hand, just seemed like the right time to do it.

Calla had said before when we were younger that she didn't want to have kids when things were the way they were before. But, with the war over, President Snow gone, and the last Hunger Games going to be happening a week before Johnathan had scheduled our wedding, it seemed like the proper time to talk about it. When I was younger, I had always wanted kid; after my first Games I didn't, of course, but it was safe to have them without losing them to the Games now.

"What do you mean 'this whole thing'?" Calla looked away from the ocean as the sun set slowly over the horizon, her gray eyes curious.

I smiled, nervous now, "I mean, after we're married, we trying have kids."

"Huh," She turned her attention back to the sunset, "I don't know. I haven't exactly thought about it…I'm sure my dad would be thrilled to have a grandkid."

We laughed, "What d'you say?"

"We could try." Calla shrugged, "I don't know, I'm not sure I'd be a good mother. But, if I remember correctly, you once told me that you had wanted kids when you were younger."

I nodded, "Yes I did."

"Alright," she bit her lip, still looking at the sunset, "I think that it wouldn't hurt to try. After we're married of course, I don't think my dad would be very happy if we didn't wait for that kind of thing."

I smiled, knowing that she was right about Haymitch, "Alright."


	25. Chapter 25

**Callalilly – Age 19**

I walked off the train, seeing my dad waiting for me on the platform like he did every time I came back from the Capitol.

"Hey dad." I hugged him, smelling the beer on him.

Since Snow's whole proposal, he'd been drinking more and more, which seemed almost impossible. I didn't exactly mind though, I knew he was worried and he always drank more when he was worried. I was really the last connection he had to my mom, and he was worried that, like my mother, he would lose me to Snow too. But I wasn't going to let Snow take me, just like Finnick had told me last year; he was going to do everything in his power to help me if I needed it.

"Let's go home, I'm tired."

My dad nodded and put his arm around my shoulder, leading me to the car that was waiting for us outside. It would only take us as far as the Justice Building, but I was fine with that, you didn't walk around a lot in the Capitol, especially when you were busy entertaining the higher ups that controlled Panem.

* * *

"When do you go back?" My dad looked around, ignoring the people of District 12 as we walked through the main square, following the familiar road to Victor's Village.

I looked over at him, "A couple of weeks."

He huffed angrily, "What, he won't even give you a break until the Games. The Reaping's in less than a month."

"I know dad," I sighed, looking down at the road, "Finn says hey by the way."

My dad smiled, "Good to know."

We arrived at Victor's Village, going into the first house, the same house where I had grown up in before getting my own.

The houses were all identical, the Capitol was pretty diverse in their styles, but when it came to building houses, the interior was almost exactly identical if you didn't spruce it up yourself. The only thing that my dad had done to spruce up the house was to put one lone picture of my mom up in his bedroom. My bedroom had been filled with pictures and posters and junk…just like at my new home. I had to have something to make cluttered.

"So what's been going on since I've been gone?" I sat down on the couch, looking at my dad as he went into the kitchen and poured himself a drink; I took one of the glasses as he offered me one, taking a sip of the alcohol, ignoring the burn in my throat as my dad leaned back in his recliner.

"Nothing new. You haven't missed anything other than Cray putting out his normal offer again. There was another mine mishap, so some of the women around the Seam have been tighter on money than they're used to." My dad took another, large, sip of his drink, glaring at the contents in it as he spoke.

I made a disgusted sound; of course old Cray would do that to the less fortunate women from the Seam. He was just like the people from the Capitol, taking advantage of the people who had no other choice. It was do or die in these situations; the only difference was that the women of the Seam were doing it for their children.

"It's too bad that I can't be in the bowls anymore, I could've helped out by taking tesserae and giving it to the families."

"You already did that when you were participating in the reapings. It didn't do much to help."

I sighed, "I could talk to Snow…"

Trailing off, I knew that I wouldn't do it…I wouldn't be able to subject myself to anything else that asshole would want me to do for him if I asked him a favor.

"No you're not." My dad's eyes were hard, wearing that angry look that he usually got when thinking of Snow. That man had taken almost everything from him; my dad wasn't going to let me do something like that just to help the people who hadn't helped him.

I could picture Finnick's expression too, his sea-green eyes turning hard and darkening with anger. Of course he would say no too, he'd seen me at some of my weakest moments right after working with Snow's clients, he wasn't going to let me subject myself to even more of that.

I sighed and leaned back, "Forget I mentioned it. I wouldn't go to Snow if I was dying anyway."

* * *

"How long are you going to have to do this? Don't people get bored easily in the Capitol?" Sterling Hawthorne walked beside me, both of us going to our clearing in the middle of the woods.

I shrugged, unable to give him a definite answer, "I don't know. Finnick's been doing it since he was sixteen…and no one has gotten bored with him yet. There's no telling."

"But Finnick's different."

"How so?" I looked over at Sterling, stopping my tracks, not liking the tone he was using.

Sterling shrugged, "Because Finnick…he's, I don't know. It's just different. You're not like him and frankly, that's a good thing."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean." Sterling never had been one at talking to people, usually, when we were in town he was the quiet one. I spoke to people, knew what to say when they expected an answer. Sterling, however, was the opposite. He wasn't good at lying to people about what he really thought, wasn't all that good at keeping his thoughts to himself when he had a strong opinion, that was why we had our clearing, to say whatever the hell we wanted to about the Capitol and Snow.

Sterling didn't really know Finnick other than what he'd seen during interviews during the Games. Sure, he seemed like a player…and extremely cocky on TV, but that was definitely an act. Finnick was broken, just like every victor was; he just wouldn't show anyone but me.

He cleared his throat, "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant that he doesn't seem…real. You can do things that he can't."

"Like what?"

Sterling returned my confused gaze, "Tell Snow you won't do it anymore…and if you want to go all noble about it, tell him you won't do it unless he helps the families that lost people. He'll say no to you anyway, that asshole doesn't have a compassionate bone in his body. And I'm tired of you coming home looking like you're about to break apart because of this. "

Unable to figure out what to say to him, I took another bite from the bread in my hands, looking across the meadow at the trees. The silence that feel between us wasn't like the silence between Finnick and I, whereas Finnick and I both enjoyed being silent with each other, already knowing exactly what we were feeling because of the similarities between us; Sterling was only talkative here…and it felt strange for that to be disrupted as he followed suit and stayed quiet.

* * *

I paced in the study, biting one of my nails down to the quick as I tried to come to a decision. Sterling was right; Snow wouldn't help the people, even if I did actually tell him that the deal was off… But I did want out of this whole thing, I was tired of selling my body to people. I wasn't anyone's property and I was tired of being treated like I was.

If Finnick had been there to talk to me, he probably would have told me it was a stupid thing to do, Snow would be angry. But he was always angry at the victors for something, maybe he would have more important things to actually deal with. Like the overwhelming amount of people in the poorer districts that were dealing with hunger…or something more probable, the Games…or finding some other way to ruin someone else's life.

With that thought in mind, I sighed and walked over to the phone, picking it up and dialing the number that had been lying on my desk since Snow had come to my dad's house to make his offer. I was free to decline the offer anytime, free to stop what was happening to me when I was tired of it.

And I was tired of it. Every time I ended up passing someone that had been a client, they looked at me strangely, it was like they were reliving what had happened when I'd been with them, and the fact that they enjoyed reliving it was one of the worst things to think about. Whereas I tried my hardest to forget about it the moment it was over, my clients played it over and over again, probably told their friends about it, told their husbands and wives about it when it was long over and I had already left.

They wanted the memories that I didn't. And Sterling's words from earlier helped me make my decision, I had changed since my Games, but every time I came home from entertaining people, I felt almost worse than how I had felt when they took me out of that arena.

"Hello?" I spoke into the receiver, hearing the voice to one of Snow's secretaries, "Is President Snow available?"

When the lady said no, I rolled my eyes, of course not.

"Please inform him, that Callalilly Abernathy is reclining his deal." I hung up the phone and took a deep breath; feeling like a weight had been taken off my shoulders as I left the study and walked out of the house, hoping to catch Sterling before nightfall.

* * *

"Calla! Calla!" I sat up from where I was lying on my couch. The sound of someone pounding on my door waking me up from the nightmare I had been experiencing.

Walking to the door, I opened it, seeing Gale as he yelled, "What's wrong Gale?"

"The mine that Sterling was in had a problem…they're not sure if anyone made it." The fourteen year old boy was crying, something that I had never seen from him before and I grabbed my coat, throwing it on.

"Let's go." I grabbed Gale's hand, letting him lead me toward the mines where families from the Seam were standing.

Gale pulled up to Hazelle and I hugged her, feeling her grip tighten around me as she cried. I didn't know what to do, I knew that this was my fault…Snow probably got my message and was angered and decided to go for someone close to me, just like he always did.

"I'm so sorry." The tears fell now, and I clung to Hazelle as everyone began bringing the families of the miners blankets.

Someone threw one around Hazelle and me, mumbling their condolences as they walked away, leaving the two of us as everything around us fell eerily silent.


	26. Chapter 26

**Finnick – Age 22**

Why was there never anything good on the television in the Capitol?

I flipped through the channels, stopping occasionally as I tried to find something good. It was a lazy day for me, something that was rare to come by while I was in the Capitol, I enjoyed not having to be around the people of the Capitol for a day…but I was bored. I wanted Calla to get here.

"What the hell is this?" Speaking of the devil, I turned and watched as Calla stomped into the apartment, something wrapped in her hand as she slammed the door.

"What's wrong?" Knowing that she had a temper much like Haymitch's, I wasn't putting much thought into why she was angry…with Calla, especially while we were in the Capitol, any little thing could set her off. I smiled slightly when I saw that the thing in her hand was a tabloid. Haymitch and I had been trying hard not to get her to read those, mainly because the Capitol had a tendency to dog the former Victor's appearances and, though Calla was apparently sought after by Capitol creeps, some people didn't seem to think that she looked right. "You know, you really shouldn't read those."

She shook her head, "I didn't exactly read it, I just saw the front page."

"What're you talking about?" I laughed, confused for a moment before Calla shoved the magazine in my face. It was a picture that someone had taken from the window of the restaurant I had taken her to after I had went out of my mind that one night. The title read "Friends With Benefits" and I made a face. "What?"

"Apparently, we're 'Friends with Benefits'. You know, because we're whores of the Capitol and everything, of course we're whoring around with each other."

I had to laugh, she was overreacting really, "Relax Calla."

"No," She was still shouting…maybe I should get her a drink, "This could piss Snow off."

I stopped laughing, knowing she was right but wanting to calm her down a little, "He would have done something already."

"Are you sure? Or do you think that he'd wait until we're both back home?"

The question floored me. Snow would wait until we got a break to do something…and both Calla and I were supposed to go home tomorrow morning. What was he going to do to us?

…To the people we were close to?

* * *

"Get up!" Calla snuggled closer to me for a moment and I wrapped my arms tighter around her, thinking that the sudden noise was coming from the apartment next to ours, "Let's go."

Someone pulled her roughly from my arms in the bed and my eyes flew open as someone grabbed my arm and I caught sight of the Peacekeepers restraining Calla. They pushed her from the room and I was pushed after her, to shocked to actually fight back, and worried that if I did something would happen to my Calla.

"What do you think you're doing?" Calla yelled at one of the Peacekeepers, probably trying to wake up some of the Capitol people. It wouldn't work though; these people wouldn't wake up during a hurricane. She tried to fight against the Peacekeeper as he tried to push her into one of the cars, but of course, the man won out, sending her into the car, the shirt that I had given her to wear almost riding up as the man climbed in beside her and I was pushed to the other car.

"What the hell is going on?" I got into the car willingly, knowing it was futile to fight back.

The Peacekeeper beside me looked straight ahead as the car began moving, going a different way than Calla's, "President Snow wants to talk to you."

"Shit…"

* * *

"Can the two of you explain what the meaning of this is?" I looked at the desk, avoiding Snow's eyes as he slid the magazine that Calla had showed me earlier that night in front of us.

I clutched the arms of the chair that I had been pushed into, not knowing what to say. What could we say to explain to him that nothing had happened? He already knew that we went out to eat dinner and obviously he knew that we'd been sleeping with each other…now he definitely thought that we were doing more than sleeping.

This whole thing was about his anger at that District 12 girl. Someone had to pay for making him look like a fool. Calla and I were the closest he could get to the 'Star Crossed Lovers of Panem'.

"W-well," Calla broke the silence and Snow turned his full attention onto her, I'd never heard her stutter before and I was surprised that no giggle was escaping her this time, "what do you mean President Snow?"

Not the right question…

Snow smiled at her and stood up from his chair, walking around his desk and over to her, "Calla, let's not beat around the bush, shall we? Now your clients don't want baggage…I don't think that either of you need to know what might happen if this whole thing continues." My thoughts ran to Annie, the crazy girl that was being held in house arrest back at Four. What would he do to her?

"And District 12 can't afford to lose their oldest mentor, can they?"

What would he do to Haymitch?"

Calla surprised me by glaring at the man, her knuckles just as white as mine as she clinched them together to make one big fist.

"Do you understand me Calla?"

She didn't speak, didn't move. I was worried that she wasn't going to answer him…but eventually, she nodded. Her face set into a concentrating expression…like she was trying not to hit the man in front of her.

"I couldn't hear you."

"I understand." She spoke through gritted teeth and Snow stood up, satisfied.

"Good," he walked back to his chair in his desk and sat down again, "Now get out of my office. Both of you have clients to entertain tonight."

Calla jumped from the chair, anger written across her face, "It's three in the morning."

The smile that he had been sporting fell off of his face, "And, you have clients that have requested you. I suggest you go entertain."

I stopped myself from grabbing her arm and pulling Calla out of the room, knowing it would only invoke Snow's wrath more. But after a moment of having a staring contest with Snow, she followed me, closing the door angrily behind her. I looked at her, wanting to say something, but unsure of what to say to her.

What could I say?

The peacekeepers from earlier came back, taking us separately down the stairs where two cars were waiting. I didn't pay attention to the car they were leading me to, focusing mainly on the fact that there were two men sitting in the front seat of the car they wanted Calla to go into. As far as I knew, this would be her first time experiencing something like that and I grimaced as that smile she always got around the people of the Capitol appeared, looking away as I got into my own car finding Selena Snow at the wheel.

"Hello Finnick, it's nice to see you again."

"The pleasure's all mine Selena." I smiled at her, my attention still on the car ahead of us as both went in different directions.

* * *

Selena Snow had never been able to hold her alcohol. I looked over at her from where I stood by the large window, overlooking the Capitol and wondering where Calla was. The necklace that she was giving me had a Mockingjay on it, just like the pin that Katniss Everdeen had wore into the arena. They still weren't sure about Peeta, still hadn't crowned the two Victors, but the Mockingjay was already becoming quite the symbol of still for the people around here.

I didn't want to look at the pin though; Snow was angry and was taking it out on Calla because of Katniss. She'd already lost someone because of this whole thing, if she lost Haymitch…there was no telling what she would do. The pin was just another reminder that I was losing Calla because a little girl can't follow the rules.

Shaking my head, I leaned into the window, letting my head rest against it as I tried to tune out the sound of Selena's breathing.

At least she had stopped trying to imitate Calla's look. Now she was trying to be Katniss Everdeen, which was strange in itself. I hadn't seen the sixteen year old in person yet, but this time Selena seemed to get the shade of the eyes right. They were darker, with seemingly no personality in them, at least that's the way that Katniss had seemed in the interview. I would be the first to admit that the synthetic fire Cinna had created was interesting, but Katniss had seemed childish twirling in her interview. Apparently, that was just my opinion though; the people of the Capitol loved it.

"Finnick…" I turned behind me as Selena drunkenly sat up, "Come back to bed."

I sighed and complied, stopping myself from recoiling as she moved closer to me, curling herself into a slight ball, like she was some sort of cat, and fell back to sleep.


	27. Chapter 27

**Callalilly – Age 23**

I followed the group up the ladder, trying to get away from the lizard mutts that were chasing us through the sewers. Finnick was behind me, climbing with me, trying to escape the mutts when he called my name.

"Calla, go!"

I turned and saw Finnick, seeing him put his back to the wall as three of the mutts looked hungrily at him, getting ready to attack.

"Calla, let's go!" Gale yelled at me and I looked up at the ledge where Katniss was trying to come down the ladder before Gale stopped her.

Their fighting distracted me for a moment before a yell below me brought my focus back. I looked down again, seeing as Finnick tried, and failed, to fight the three mutts off. They began trying to tear at him and I let go of the ladder, pushing at the wall to land a little left of where the mutts were. Pulling out one of my knives, I closed the small gap between me and the closest mutt, stabbing it quickly to get its attention before stabbing it in the chest and then slitting its throat. I jumped back, away from it as the mutt fell before turning to the second one, giving Finnick the chance to fight with the third one. The smell of roses was becoming overpowering as I as I tried to get the upper hand with the mutt, making it hard to breath. I coughed, suddenly, giving the mutt an advantage. It pounced, knocking me to the ground, crushing me with its weight as it bit into my wrist. My knife fell out of my hand and the mutt's teeth sunk deeper into my wrist until it stopped suddenly and Finnick pulled the mutt off of me.

"Let's go." He helped me up, looking anxiously at my bloody wrist that I was worried about being broken, "Do you need help?"

"No, I'm okay." I climbed the ladder, trying, unsuccessfully, to ignore the pain in my wrist as I hurriedly made my way up the ladder, now sure that Finnick was behind me.

I looked up again as Katniss yelled nightlock three times and threw the holo down to where Finnick and I had fought the mutts. I pushed myself closer to the wall as it blew up and waited for a moment to proceed climbing again. Gale and Katniss helped Finnick and me over the ledge and the group looked at us, surprise written on their faces.

"Let me see your wrist." Finnick broke the silence and when I shook my head he scowled.

"We need to keep going."

* * *

Katniss looked at the woman she had killed, her mouth set in a grim line. After escaping the mutts, we'd had to run around the maze of houses frantically until we came to this one...and of course, there would be a woman there.

The odds were not in our favor today.

I turned away from her, watching as Finnick wrapped up my wrist. He was cut up, pretty badly, but he wouldn't let me help him yet.

"You have to be careful Callie." He was pleading with me, his sea-green eyes looking away from my wrist and up at my face, "What would Haymitch do if something happened to you?"

I bit my lip, holding back to the nervous giggle that was threatening to come out, "I wasn't going to leave you."

Finnick sighed, "I know."

We fell silent, looking at each other as Katniss helped Gale with the cut on his forehead and everyone else settle down from looking around the dead woman's house. Everyone of the 'Star Squad' looked horrible, we all had some type of injury, whether it be deep cuts to the head or broken wrists, this was not supposed to have happened and Katniss was not supposed to lead the mission.

I stood up, grabbing a clean washcloth from the kitchen and wet it, returning to sit in front of Finnick, cleaning the blood from a cut on his cheek. He closed his eyes as the cold cloth touched his skin, pushing his face into the cloth slightly.

"I don't know what I would do if something happened to you." He whispered, his eyes still closed.

I was silent for a moment, watching as he slowly opened his eyes and looked into mine, "Nothing's going to happen to me Finn."

We gave each other weak smiles and then turned as Katniss said that we were sleeping here. I sighed; glad to have a little break before going deeper into the Capitol again. It would be strange going back to the Capitol after so long of not having to go there. After so long for not having to sell myself for Snow…

"How long do you think we have before they figure out some of us have survived?" Katniss breaks the silence that had fallen between our group and I looked up from rubbing some of the blood off of Finnick's neck, wincing a bit at the deep gash that was there.

Finnick winced when I pressed to hard and I took the cloth off of his neck as Gale answered her, "I think they could be here anytime. They know we were heading for the streets. Probably the explosion will throw them off for a few minutes, then they'll start looking for our exit point."

"What're we going to do?" I speak up then, looking at Katniss as she looked out the window and spoke to Cressida.

Katniss looked around, seeing the damage that each of us had experienced today. My wrist was throbbing and Finnick's neck was still bleeding, I place the cloth onto it again, hoping to stop it before I bandaged the deep cut. Gale's head had already been bandaged up and he looked pale and exhausted and then, Peeta was laying on the dead woman's sofa, biting one of the pillows, and Cressida was so pale it looked like she was about to pass out.

"Let's check her closets."

Confused, I looked at Katniss again, trying to figure out what she wanted to do. Everyone but Peeta, Finnick, and me moved to do that and I pulled the cloth from Finnick's neck again and bandaged it, hoping that it would be enough for now. Obviously Katniss wasn't planning on staying here.

With Finnick's neck bandaged, we both stood up and helped, finding more than enough closet space. I made a face as we went through her clothing and we piled it up in the living room as Katniss ordered us to change our clothes.


	28. Chapter 28

**Finnick – Age 18**

_"Let the 69__th__ Hunger Games begin." _Seneca Crane spoke and I stared at the screens, sitting beside Haymitch, away from the other Career mentors as the kids left their pedestals. They had made the arena a rainforest this year, and as the tributes ran toward the Cornucopia they began slipping on the Capitol-made water. I stopped paying attention to them as one of the screens showed Calla as she stayed on her pedestal, looking around at everything.

"What the hell is she doing?" Haymitch growled beside me, his hands angrily clenching into fists as he watched.

I shook my head, "She's just looking at her surroundings, give her a minute."

The man fell silent beside me as we watched now; after about ten seconds Calla finally stepped from her pedestal using the slippery blades of grass to her advantage as she headed for one of the bags away from the Cornucopia. She grabbed it and threw it on her back as she ran, narrowly avoiding a knife that the District 2 male tribute had thrown in her direction.

As she ran, Mitchell, her District partner elbowed my District 4 girl in the face, sending her on the ground with a broken nose as he stole her backpack. My eyes grew hard as I watched, my girl had only been fourteen, she hadn't had a chance in hell of winning, but it wasn't a fair way to go. However, before Mitchell could do anything else, the eighteen year old from Nine had come up behind him and slit his throat, he fell to the ground on top of the fourteen year old girl, blood spurting from his neck as the girl screamed and tried to push him off of her. The eighteen year old pulled the body off of her and stabbed her. As she died, she stopped screaming and I cringed. He was covered in blood on the first day…how could one person do all that damage?

Turning my attention away from that screen again, I looked back to Calla's, watching as she ran through the forest quickly, looking back as sounds erupted from the Cornucopia behind her. She stopped finally to look in the bag that she grabbed, finding some, surprisingly, useful things in the bag for being so far away from the Cornucopia.

"Alright." Calla nodded and placed everything back into the bag before standing up and continuing through the forest.

* * *

"Morning." I plopped into the seat beside Haymitch again, ignoring the looks I was getting from the Career mentors.

Haymitch nodded in greeting, rubbing his temples, "This thing better end soon, I haven't had a drink in over a week."

"Get over it. This is good for you." I spoke, looking at the screens again.

Calla was already awake and moving, packing her sleeping bag into the backpack and jumping from the tree she had holed up in for the night. I was glad she'd woken up early, everyone else was asleep still, they'd be awake soon, but she was moving back toward the pond she had found yesterday.

"I need coffee." Standing up, I walked over to the stand that held coffee, pouring a cup and dropping a couple of sugar cubes in it before walking back to my seat next to Haymitch.

Calla was stuffing her canteen back into her backpack and I hear Enobaria placing a bet on the eighteen year old from across the room. Chaff offered Haymitch a drink which the District 12 man, thankfully, declined. And Mags was looking at the screen where Seth sat in his little camp. I ignored his screen and continued watching Calla's, glad that she hadn't run into any trouble. As Haymitch and I watched, Calla shook her head at something and gave a small smile at something.

She stood up from the pond after a moment and left the pond, continuing on her trek through the forest.

"Well, well, well…look what we have here."

Calla turned around, coming face to face with the eighteen year old District 9 tribute who had seemed to pop up out of nowhere. She gripped the knife in her hand tighter and her gray eyes were wide in surprised for a moment before going back to their normal size.

"Shit." Haymitch spoke beside me, watching the screen and shaking his head, "She's not going to stand a chance with him."

I didn't speak, instead I continued staring at the screen, my hands clinched in fists.

"I'm surprised, you know, considering that you're the infamous Haymitch Abernathy's kid…I sort of expected a little more. I mean, he won the second Quarter Quell."

"What the hell is he talking about?" I asked, she hadn't had a chance to do anything to impress him. What did he want her to do?

He took a couple of steps closer to her and Calla backed away, "I expected a less cocky eighteen year old."

"Why? You know just as well as I do that I'm going to win." The eighteen year old laughed at Calla's words and she glared at him.

"You're hopeful."

"I'm the oldest one here, there's no way I'll die."

Calla cracked a small smile, "You obviously don't pay much attention to the Games do you? Four years ago, a fourteen year old from District 4 killed two eighteen year olds after they killed his District partner," my chest tightened as Calla spoke, "he went on to win."

"Yeah, but Finnick Odair's a bit of a whore, don't you think?" I glared at the eighteen year old on the screen, seeing as Calla did the same. She didn't speak though, which I was thankful for. Snow would have loved for her to have said something to use against me, "No retort?"

"I don't see the need to talk to you. I mean…you seem so sure of yourself."

The eighteen year old laughed again, "Of course."

He took one more step closer to her and then lunged with his knife, causing Calla to jump out of the way. She returned the gesture and gave him a descent sized cut in his arm. He lunged again and Calla tried to move but was to slow and ended up with a cut on her cheek. They continued sparring and Calla pushed against the eighteen year old, sending him a couple of steps backward.

"You're a lot more fun than I thought you would be." He smiled at Calla, a dark, sadistic smile and Calla returned it with a glare.

"I'm glad you're enjoying it."

She took another step back and I leaned closer to the screen on the wall, trying to figure out what she was doing until she took another step and revealed a piece of rope hanging slightly in front of the hidden camera. I looked at the rope trying to figure out what it was for a moment before my attention returned to Calla as her back ran into the stump of a tree.

What was she doing?

The eighteen year old took another step and then, all of a sudden, he was hanging upside down. She'd set a giant snare.

"What the-"As his knife fell from his hand, Calla grabbed it and stepped away from him.

"You think you're clever Twelve?"

Calla glared, "Yeah, I suppose I do."

"You know it's only a matter of time before the Careers come after you." Calla's expression changed just like it had when she'd been reaped. Her face became indifferent and she turned to leave, "I can't wait until your dad has to watch you die." She froze, "It's too bad that I can't be a fly on the wall for that because we all know that he's going to fall off the handle."

"Shut up." Calla turned around slightly, clutching a knife in each hand as she saw the smug smile on the eighteen year old's face.

"Maybe he'll die too." Beside me, Haymitch tensed as he watched the screen, his face white, "Wouldn't that be tragic? The whole Abernathy family just wiped out."

As Haymitch and I watched, Haymitch's face growing paler as the eighteen year old spoke, Calla threw the knife, catching the District 9 male in the neck. A canon went off in the background and Calla's eyes widened as she stood there for a moment, looking at the eighteen year old before she pulled the knife from his neck and ran away, her face much different from the indifferent look that she had adopted while talking to the male.

My chest clinched again, like it had on the train when I had heard her name called, and Haymitch let out a slight sigh of relief.

"Shit."

* * *

"Mornin'." Haymitch plopped onto the chair next to me, handing me a cup of coffee as took a sip from his own as we watched the screens. The tributes were waking up now, and when I had come in two hours ago, Calla had already been awake, but had yet to really move.

I nodded in thanks, my attention focused on what Calla was doing. When she'd finally decided to make camp yesterday, it was easy to see that she was freaked out and depressed, not that I blamed her, but I knew what could happen to people after they made their first kill in the Games. Some people killed themselves after, and as Calla bit her lip and looked at the ground from the branch she was camping in, I knew that I had to do something before she went through with it.

Standing up, I ran over to one of the gift machines and clicked the picture of her face, choosing the more expensive District 4 bread without thinking about it as I typed the message to be added with it. After I finished with the transaction, I looked back over at the screen, watching as the parachute fell into her lap. Calla looked at it for a moment and then opened it, finding the bread and then pulling out the piece of paper and smiled. She pulled the bread from the container and inspected it for a moment before ripping a small piece of it off and sticking it in her mouth.

I gave a small laugh at her face as the taste hit her, very different from the bread in District 12. Ours was salty…theirs had some sort of oats or something in it. It wasn't as good, or, at least that's what I had thought on my victory tour when I had eaten it.

She bit her lip as she placed the rest of the bread in the container again and packed her camp up quickly before climbing a little ways down from her tall branch and jumping from one of the lower ones. I was thankful that the bread and the note had worked.

Calla would come home broken, but she would come back to me alive.


	29. Chapter 29

**Callalilly – Age 23**

"Hey," I looked over at Finnick as he came up behind me, his arms snaking around my waist as I scanned my arm for my schedule.

In the past couple of weeks since I had gotten out of the hospital and moved into an apartment, he and I hadn't had a lot of alone time. Sure we would sneak into each other's apartments to sleep, but by the time that happened, we were both so exhausted that we just fell asleep. And during the day, we both had our schedules that Coin expected us to follow, the only time we could see each other was at lunch.

I smiled back at him and then looked at the purple ink at my arm, the only good thing was the fact that I had training at the end of the day.

"Come on, I'm kidnapping you."

Looking at Finnick again and I laughed, "And what exactly are you kidnapping me to do?"

"Katniss is giving me her time to go hunting. I have exactly two hours to be out of this hellhole of a bunker…and I get to take someone with me."

"I have stuff to do Finnick."

He rolled his eyes, "Hence the kidnapping."

"You can't kidnap me."

"Says who?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, placing my hands on my hips, "Says me."

"Too late."

He picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder as I yelped in surprise. Finnick laughed and walked through the crowd of people that had begun to gather in line to scan their arms, ignoring the strange looks from the District 13 people who were giving us strange looks.

"Put me down Finnick." I laughed and he jostled me on his shoulder, causing me to punch his back, "Now."

"I'm afraid that I can't do that."

"I don't like you right now."

Finnick ignored me and continued to walk through Thirteen, near to the exit.

"Can I ask what you're doing?" Finnick stopped walking and turned to look at my dad as he spoke.

Finnick shrugged, jostling me again, "I'm performing a kidnapping."

"Oh, well have fun."

I looked at my dad, "Some father you are."

"I can't help you out here. Finnick's to masterful at this." He held his hands in front of him on mock surrender with a smile, "Better luck next time."

"I hate you."

* * *

"God, I love being outside."

Finnick laughed as I put my arms out and twirled around, looking up at the trees. I hadn't been outside since the Quarter Quell and that had been a disaster. The wind blew, causing my short hair to fly into my face and I smiled, looking over at Finnick again as he watched me.

"See, I was right in kidnapping you."

He walked over to me and I grabbed a fistful of his shirt to pull him even closer, "Maybe so. You should do it a little more discreetly next time though."

Finnick shot me a cocky smile and shot his arm around my waist, "I don't think so."

We kissed, trying to pull each other closer than we already were. We'd both been so busy and crowded with people lately that we hadn't had any time to actually be alone, it felt nice to have some quiet time out of the underground society that belonged to Thirteen for once. Somewhere a Mockingjay sang in the distance and I laughed, pulling my lips away from Finnick's.

"What are you laughing about?"

I smiled, "I just had a vision of one of those bad romance movies from the Capitol that we used to make fun of. This would be the scene where the two lovers reunite after a long break from each other. You're supposed to be saying something about how you can't live without me and how you did something stupid and you apologize."

"Why do you even remember anything about those stupid movies?" Finnick laughed at me, and I shrugged.

"I somewhat liked those movies." He gave me a strange look, "The storylines would have been good if the actors hadn't been creepy Capitol people."

He shook at me, "You know something?"

"Huh?"

"I love you sometimes."

I laughed and he kissed me again, cutting my laugh and my chance to retort off. We stayed like that for a few moments, and then both pulled away, pressing out foreheads together. It was nice having some quiet, alone, time together. Even at lunch when we were able to find our own table my dad would sit down with us. It was nice…having a break, being able to just enjoy each other's presence without being exhausted or on guard in front of anyone.

"Only sometimes?" I finally spoke with a curious look at him.

Finnick laughed and sat down, pulling me by the hand with him, "Yes."

"Shut up." I rolled my eyes at him and laid my head against his chest, listening as more Mockingjays sang in the forest.

* * *

"So, I hear you skipped out on most of the day." I looked over at my dad as I sat at the table with him, eating dinner. Finnick had been caught up by Greasy Sae up at the counter where we had gotten our food. I looked over at him for a moment, smiling and he spoke with his hands to explain something to the older woman and then turned my attention back to my dad.

"Well, it seems my kidnapping was meant as an all day thing." I shrugged at my dad and took a bite of food.

Finnick set his plate down and sat on the bench beside me, our legs touching under the table, "So, apparently, I'm not as good at this hunting thing as Katniss."

"It would appear so," I snorted, "You brought back two squirrels because you wouldn't let me help. Tridents are not meant for hunting."

He rolled his eyes at me, "I had it under control."

"No he didn't." I looked at my dad, "He's not very good at hunting…at all. Actually I think you should stick with fish."

Finnick laughed at me, "Yeah, I'll do that."


	30. Chapter 30

**Finnick – Age 26**

I waited for the ceremony to start, not sure how I was supposed to feel about this whole thing. Calla had been pushed into her own room the moment that Katniss' prep team had arrived and I was feeling a little strange without her being beside me now, she'd been right beside me for a while now, all I could imagine was when she had left me to go up to Twelve's floor before her Games. I knew better though, she was three rooms down on the right, in the same place as I was, just getting ready for or wedding.

Messing with the cuff of my suit jacket, I looked out the window, matching my breathing with the calm waves of the sea to calm down. It helped for a moment until I started pacing. I was nervous, I'd never even been to a wedding before, let alone been married…I didn't want to do the wrong thing. I didn't want to screw this up.

"Come on Finnick." I looked over at the door and saw Peeta, "They're ready to start."

I sighed, "Alright."

"Don't worry about; everything's going to go great." Peeta laughed at me as we walked to our places. He took the spot behind me, having been chosen as one of my groomsmen. I was thankful he had accepted, especially when Katniss had taken the job as one of Calla's bridesmaids.

* * *

The music started and I looked down the aisle as Johanna walked down the aisle, looking displeased at the fact that she was wearing a dress, followed by Gale's little sister Posy as the little girl threw flowers onto the sand around her. Katniss appeared next, and then, the woman of the hour, escorted by Haymitch.

I hadn't seen the dress before now, but I was happy with the one she had chosen. It was a strapless white dress, the skirt dragging on the sand as Calla and Haymitch walked through the sea of lilies that Posy had thrown to the ground. Her hair was left down and curled in ringlets that framed her face and I smiled at her gaining on in return as the music continued and Haymitch continued leading her up the aisle.

Haymitch looked a little out of place for this whole thing, he was wearing a suit, something that I'd only seen him wear twice; once when he was trying to get sponsors for Calla and then again when he was getting sponsors for Katniss and Peeta. He looked slightly uncomfortable in the suit, but I didn't really care, it was mostly a surprise that he'd worn one at all.

As they reached the end of the aisle, Haymitch handed me Calla's hand and I held hers tightly, smiling as she stepped up on the small platform and gave a soft giggle. She was nervous and it made me feel a little better, I was glad that I wasn't the only nervous one…I still expected Snow to call me to say that another client had been lined up. Calla had told me last night that she felt the same way. We couldn't just forget everything that had happened before this whole war had taken place…but we were starting to move on. We would never forget, but we would definitely be able to have our own lives, thankfully.

The guy that Johnathan had hired to perform the ceremony was talking, but I wasn't quite paying attention to him. I was looking at Calla, convincing myself that this wasn't some weird, screwed up, dream. I smiled at Calla, earning a large one from her in return as we stood in front of the large crowd. Calla hadn't been very happy with Johnathan when she'd found out how many people he had sent out invitations to, it was ridiculous really, not only did we have a camera crew here, but there were over a hundred people at our wedding, we didn't even know most of them.

* * *

"It's time to cut the cake." Johnathan looked over at Calla and me, nodding toward the large cake that had been moved into the center of the room.

Peeta had made it, there had been a long argument with Johnathan with that one, but eventually Calla's stubbornness had won out on that one, and now we were staring at a four tiered cake with alternating sea shells and calla lilies on them. I smiled at the flowers, knowing that Calla thought they were only for 'dead people'. She grabbed the knife and I placed my hands over hers, as we cut ourselves a piece from the first tear and placed it onto a plate. We fed each other the cake before I took some of the frosting and smeared it on her nose, earning a large smile from her as she did the same.

The crowd laughed, but we ignored them as I pulled Calla in for a kiss and the band began playing from somewhere behind us, causing an excited murmur to pulse through the crowd and Calla and I pulled apart so that we could perform our first dance.

"Well, Mrs. Odair," I smiled as we danced and wiped the frosting from her nose, "Only a couple more hours and we can get out of here."

She laughed at me, "Yeah, if we can get away from all of these people. Do you even know who that last person congratulated us?"

"I thought you knew them."

Calla scoffed, "Shut up."

* * *

"So…" Calla trailed off as we walked up to the hotel room in the Capitol. The one place Johnathan thought was good enough for a honeymoon.

I hesitated in front of the door and then sucked it up, opening the door and picking Calla up as I walked over the threshold, kicked the door shut, and put her on the bed, ignoring the luggage that was still outside as leaned over her, keep my weight on my arms, and kissing her. This was different from the other times I'd kissed her…we both knew where this was supposed to lead, but I was a little worried about it, the only kind of sex I had had was unwanted and uncomfortable. I didn't know how to do it…correctly.

"Stop." Calla pulled away, her hand on the back of my neck as she looked at me, "Don't think about it."

I looked at her, taking a deep breath to calm myself as I pressed against her once more, flitting down to kiss her neck now as she worked on pulling off my shirt. With a small smile, I pulled her up into a slight sitting position and unzipped her dress, sliding the soft fabric off of her body and pushing her back down onto the bed.. She tangled her hand in my hair and I slipped my tongue into her mouth, gaining control quickly due to the weak fight she'd put up. I smiled into the kiss and she pulled on my hair as I laughed at her.

She pulled away from me, opening her eyes to look me in the eyes, "Shut up Finn."

"Yes Mrs. Odair."

Calla cracked a smile at me and then caught my mouth with hers again as she unzipped my pants and pushed them down, I took them off the rest of the way and we hesitated a moment as we looked at each other. We were breathing hard, trying to figure out how to exactly proceed. Every other time it hadn't been with each other…it was a little strange to think of it that way, but it was true. Calla took a deep breath and pushed herself up to her elbows and gave me a nervous giggle. I cracked a smile at her and she gave me a small one of her own.

She ran a hand through my hair and then left her hand on my cheek, I grabbed her hand and smiled again, pushing every thought from my head and kissing her again. It was time to stop letting our pasts control us, time to stop allowing Snow to control us and do what we wanted to. This was what I wanted, I loved Calla, I'd married her…there was nothing I wanted to do more than this.

"Hey," she ran a hand through my hair again and I stopped kissing her neck to look at her, "I love you, Mr. Odair."

I laughed at her, "I love you too, Mrs. Odair."


	31. Chapter 31

**Callalilly – Age 35 **

"Come on Grandpa, I just want one sip." Zale followed my dad around, begging him for a sip of whatever alcohol he was drinking at the time.

My dad rolled his eyes at the nine year old, "I've told you already kid, you don't need to taste this."

"But I want to."

"Listen to your grandfather, Zale." I spoke up now, looking over at the scene from where I was sitting with Katniss, Peeta, and Finnick, looking over the book that they were making here to pass the time. Zale had been fascinated with my dad since he was born, wanting his attention even when he was a baby; my dad, however, found the constant attention annoying, claiming that he already had had to raise me.

Zale Chaff Odair was our only child, so far, I was already getting huge with kid number two, but for the life of both Finnick and me, we couldn't understand why we had waited for so long. I was secretly hoping that this one would be a girl, there was too much testosterone already, I needed a little girl to even it out.

With an annoyed face in my direction from Zale, and a stern one thrown back from Finnick, the nine year old boy let out an exasperated sigh. I hid a small smile as my dad set his alcohol down and looked at his grandson.

"Come on, let's go play catch or something."

"Be safe."

Zale crossed his arms at me, "Mom, we'll be fine."

"I know, I know." I laughed and looked back at the book on the table, flipping one of the pages and seeing the face of Mags that Peeta had so graciously painted onto the pages.

Finnick smiled beside me and grabbed my hand, rubbing circles on it with his thumb, "Katniss and I figured that you would know more about Mags, so we waited to fill this page out until we knew for sure that you guys were going to be here."

"Yeah, I can help with this." He smiled again, "So, what exactly do you want to know?"

* * *

"How, exactly are you going to handle another kid with Zale already being a handful?" I rolled my eyes at my dad's question, annoyed with him now as I sipped at the coffee he had given me.

Finnick and Zale were still asleep, a difference from when we were in Four, usually they were up with the tides, heading to the beach as soon as possible and letting me sleep in, but here in Twelve, my territory, they were constantly sleeping in. It was funny really, without the sea outside of the backdoor, they were extremely different.

"What do you mean dad? I think I handled being a kid and taking care of you just fine. Just think, without me you never would have turned out half as great as you are now."

He made a face at me, "I'm serious."

"Don't worry about it dad. Finn and I have it all under control, and Zale will help us out when he can." I took another sip, "And, he's excited to be a big brother, Finn'll have help teaching this one how to swim and all that."

My dad shook his head, "Still."

"I'm a big girl now dad. I think I can handle this."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

I laughed, "What is that supposed to mean?"

He scowled at me, staying silent for a moment as I allowed him to get his thoughts together. My dad was never the, fluffy, type. Anything that meant allowing any emotion besides annoyance or drunkenness was hard for him, and I knew that.

"You're my little girl," my dad sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, "its weird thinking that you're all grown up. It seems like just yesterday that I was holding you for the first time."

I quirked an eyebrow at him, surprised, "That was deep."

"I'm serious."

With a small chuckle, I stopped messing with him, "I know dad. Look, Finn and I are going to be fine, we've got this under control. And, I think we're doing just fine with Zale. We got this."

"I know that. I'm your father though, I'm supposed to worry."

I giggled, getting uncomfortable with this conversation; this whole thing was very out of character with my dad. He wasn't good at this kind of thing. Sure, he was a great dad and I wouldn't have redone anything that we had been through together, but he wasn't very good at showing affection. Hugs were a big thing with us, when I was little I held his hand sometimes…but actually talking about it, I don't know, it just didn't happen a lot.

"Well, stop worrying. It doesn't look good on you. What would Effie think?"

His eyes narrowed, "Don't start with that again."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

* * *

"You will not believe what my dad said to me this morning." I looked over at Finnick as we followed Zale through the woods, watching the nine year old's bronze hair as he jumped over rocks and bounded through the shrubs and ferns.

Zale wasn't as quiet in the forest as Finnick and I were, even being four months and starting to get fat hadn't made left me as loud as our son was. It made me smile, thinking back to the 74th Games where Katniss complained about Peeta's loud walking, I had understood where the sixteen year old had been coming from, loud walking while a person was hunting could really be annoying.

"What did he say?" Finnick returned my look, and helped me down from one of the steeper, slippery, slopes on the trail. I smiled at him as he placed a hand on my growing stomach and kissed me.

I shrugged and we continued walking, "He told me that he was worried that we were having two kids. And, when I told him that he shouldn't worry because I'm a big girl and can take care of myself, he said that I would forever be his little girl and that it was his job to worry. And then, then he told me that he felt like it was just yesterday that he was getting to hold me for the first time."

"That's very deep, especially for Haymitch." Finnick laughed, "but we'll be okay. I think we're getting this parenting thing down pretty well."

We laughed for a moment, standing still when Zale's voice rang from ahead of us, his whole body concealed by the shrubs and trees as the trail curved, "Come on you guys. Hurry up."

The whine in his voice made me role my eyes and start walking again, followed by Finnick as he walked with me, keeping a tight hold of my hand as we followed our son through the forest that I had originally traveled in with Sterling.

It was crazy for me to think that seventeen years ago I was walking on this exact trail, hunting to help Sterling feed his family. Finnick, sensing where my thoughts were going, squeezed my hand as he helped me down another slope. It had struck me as annoying the first time, nine years ago, when I had first found out that I was pregnant, Finnick had been overly protective about everything, I couldn't walk down the stairs without help, couldn't sit down or stand up without him coming to help me. It had annoyed me to no end, and, of course, just like my dad would have, I snapped at him about it; he relaxed with it, but still, I could see him tense every time I did anything he thought was too strenuous. Now, however, he was being a little better about the whole thing, he knew how I was when I was pregnant…he was still over protective about everything, but, he knew now when to back off, and I was thankful for that.

"What had brought up that whole conversation anyway?"

We caught up to Zale, watching the bronze haired boy bound through the forest now, acting as if he was some explorer. I shrugged at Finnick's question, "I don't know, he was saying something about how Zale reminded him a little about my mom, the way he acts. And, then, he got really serious and started getting all sappy. It was strange."

"Zale reminds Haymitch of your mother?"

Finnick's voice made me snort, "Apparently his personality is very similar to hers."

"Huh." I gave a small, nervous giggle, and Finnick gave me a large smile, "I love that sound."

Looking at him again, I gave him a small smile, "I love you."


End file.
